Significant change to South Tyneside Council housing satisfaction but key gaps remain

It comes as new figures have been released following the 2025/26 council homes tenant sanctification survey, which were reported to the latest meeting of South Tyneside Council’s housing and environment scrutiny committee.

Council houses in the borough had previously been looked after by South Tyneside Homes, a local authority arms length management organisation, before being brought back ‘in-house’ in November 2024.

The process saw the management of around 18,000 council properties brought back into South Tyneside Council.

The latest figures show 69% of tenants are satisfied overall with the housing services they receive from the council, up from 65% the previous year.

This is below the national Housemark benchmark of 73% but is above the latest average for local authorities in the North with 10k+ units, from 2023/24, which was 68%.

The survey was carried out by ARP Research, who specialise in doing such exercises across the country.

Adam Payne from the organisation, who presented the findings to the meeting, said the 69% satisfaction rate was a “statistically significant improvement.”

He added: “That’s a positive result in a year, I think everybody can be happy with that, it’s a good score.

“This is a good set of results, overall satisfaction has improved. There’s national improvements, but your scores outpace them, so that’s good news.”

Overall results in eight out of the 12 areas which form the Regulator of Social Housings Tenant Satisfaction Measures improved “significantly.”

Key boosts compared to the previous year’s results include in regards to repairs, with 77% of those who received repairs in the last 12 months satisfied with the service, up from 71% last year.

This figure is also above the national benchmark of 74%.

Meanwhile in South Tyneside 75% were satisfied with the time taken on the last repair, up from 67% the previous year, and again above the national figure of 70%.

Mr Payne, speaking at the meeting, said: “These are brilliant improvements, strongly significant improvements that are now comfortably above the Housemark benchmarks.

“They are really really good results, they’ve really jumped up since last time.

“You do very well against other landlords and I think it’s almost a given that will have helped the overall satisfaction to increase.”

Results also showed that feeling listened to continues to be the strongest predictor of tenant satisfaction, and the council improved its score in this area.

In total 61% agreed that the council housing team listen to the views of tenants and act upon them, up from 56% and almost in line with the national figure of 62%.

Data showed this had increased by the greatest margin in Hebburn, where it rose from 46% to 59%, and also among sheltered housing residents, where it increased from 66% to 75%.

Mr Payne highlighted that the council’s biggest weakness relative to other landlords is keeping tenants informed, followed by treating them fairly and with respect.

He continued: “I think the biggest weaknesses are those two measures and those are the ones you want to target the most for improvement.”

This was despite both figures rising from the previous year, with 62% agreeing they are kept informed and 72% believing they are treated fairly and with respect, however this is below the national benchmarks of 73% and 78% respectively.

Another area for improvement highlighted was the need for more focus around meeting the needs of the under 50s, amongst whom “satisfaction is far lower, most notably around being kept informed, property maintenance and safety.”

Mr Payne added: “The under 50s overall satisfaction isn’t very good, so you really want to pay more focus on their needs.”

The results were collected by a sample survey being sent to 4,025 households by post, email and text, followed by 2,000 extra email top-ups.

In total there were 1,056 completions, equalling a main survey response rate of 22%, which marked a “nice big sample” and “just what is expected” by the national housing regulator.

The responses were also weighted to be representative of all tenants.