Listening To Tenants

We recently surveyed some of our new tenants to find out how moving into a Prospect home had been for them. Due to our new development at Clovenstone Close, we significantly increased our number of new lets last year, providing new homes for over 90 tenants. This gave us a great opportunity to collect lived experience feedback from new tenants to shape our tenancy sustainment approach going forward. We surveyed everyone who moved home, both those becoming new tenants for the first time, and existing Prospect tenants who were moving into the new flats. We wanted to know if the holistic tenancy sustainment model we have developed was working in practice. And we wanted to identify any areas for improvement. The Housing Management Team set aside time for a development away session to look at the survey results and to discuss any resulting changes we wanted to implement.

Our survey results were hugely positive with 100% of tenants saying they felt fully informed but also welcomed and comfortable. Over 90% said that meeting a range of staff was helpful, we had included staff from different departments in group information sessions, viewings and signups. We provided flooring for new tenants, and 100% said this made them feel more comfortable in their homes, showing how investment in the start of a tenancy can have a longer-term impact. Every tenant was offered a welfare rights appointment either in person or over the phone. This was hugely appreciated, with tenants saying they found it helpful and also felt listened to. Prospect already has a high tenancy sustainment rate, but the feedback from the survey and our away day planning will help us further refine and develop our model.

As well as helping shape processes, direct feedback from tenants can also be very powerful. It reminds us all why the social housing sector is so important and why we do what we do. One of our new tenants said:

“After being homeless for 4 years it was a dream when the homeless team contacted me and put me in touch with Gillian at Prospect who has been such a great person in the job she does, very helpful. Finally I had somewhere to take my kids at the weekend, all the team are very helpful and if I ever you have to call regarding anything with the house they send someone there ASAP. Thank you so much you have changed my life forever, the time I have with my kids is the best feeling in the world.”