Each year, as a not for profit housing provider, Unipol conducts an independent Tenant Satisfaction Survey to see what our tenants think of our accommodation. This is a really important piece of work and tells us what we are (hopefully) doing well and what we need to do better.
In the survey we either measure satisfaction as a percentage or on a scale of 1 to 8 with 1 as worst and 8 as best.
Overall satisfaction ratings from our tenants (who rate their service as good or high) remain good and in 2019 we are pleased to see that they've reached 84%, an increase from last year's 82%!
Who Responded?
The response rate of the 2019 survey was 42.5%, up from 38.6% in 2018 (easily high enough to be statistically valid).
67.7% of respondents were studying either at the University of Leeds or Leeds Beckett University, and 72.4% of all respondents were UK domiciled undergraduates.
The Renting Process and Moving In
41% of students chose to rent their property directly at either the Leeds or Nottingham Unipol offices, with a further 22% renting from the Unipol website.
There was broad satisfaction with the booking process, and this was improved on 2017 and 2018 levels. ‘Clarity’ and ‘ease of use of the process’ were all rated in the range from 83.3% to 85.3%.
First Point of Contact, the Unipol Office and the Site Offices
49.6% of respondents had contact with their Housing Management Officer during their first few weeks of residence, whilst a largely similar proportion (50.5%) had contact with their student warden in the same period. This is up from 45% and 45.5% respectively in the 2018 survey.
Of particular note is the friendliness of staff. The friendliness of HMOs and Residence Assistants was rated highly at 88.0% and 89.4% respectively. This compares with 84.1% and 89.6% respectively in the 2018 survey.
Socials
Tenants continued to enjoy the organised social events and these are clearly of benefit to many, with 79.9% agreeing that they were enjoyable and made tenants feel welcome.
It is promising to see that attendance at social events increased slightly this year to 58.5% compared with last year's 57.2%.
Satisfaction with Facilities, Amenities and Security
In general, most satisfaction scores have increased by small amounts over their 2018 values. In particular, the satisfaction ratings for desk chairs have significantly increased since the 2018 and 2017 levels.
Security ratings remained high showing an average increase of 1.2%. The overall security rating was 79.5%, compared to 2018’s 76.8%. Areas of increased security ratings included windows and external door security, seeming to address last year’s concerns.
Maintenance and Repair Satisfaction
It is very pleasing to to see that all aspects of the ratings for maintenance and repairs have reached their highest ever levels recorded in this year’s survey.
In particular, the areas that have improved the most are those concerning response: speed of response by Unipol staff, speed of response of maintenance staff and communication of the repair time. All these areas have been rated more than 10% higher than last year.
Transport
Of last year's 9% reporting they had a bicycle with them at university, 51% reported that they stored their bike in the storage provided, which was the highest ever rating in this category. We therefore continued to fit secure bike bins wherever possible. The number of respondents reporting to have a bicycle with them this year, however, has declined again to 5%. This corresponds with the decline in respondents reporting to have a car.
So what have we learned?
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In order to continue to increase ratings for 'comfort of desk chairs', more operator chairs will need to be installled at more properties over 2019-20.
- Maintenance and repairs will continue to be an area of focus in the next year, and processes should organically become more streamlined with the roll-out of the Tenant Portal.
- We need to improve recycling facilities wherever we can - sometimes this depends on how the Local Authority collects the waste, but we can do more by providing in-house recycling bins so rubbish can be easily separated.
A few specific improvements we will make in this next year:
1) Some of the larger houses in Leeds and all of the houses in Nottingham will see operator chairs installed during 2019-20.
2) Some ageing sofas across the portfolio will be replaced during 2019-20.
3) All tenants will be provided with accurate instuctions on waste disposal and recycling.
4) The large recycling in-kitchen bags, which were trialled at Mill Street, will be rolled out to Carlton Hill and The Student Hideout during 2019.
5) The Mill Street gym has been refitted over summer 2019, and the new music practice room is now complete and ready for September starts.
Finally
A big thank you to all of our tenants who gave us their views - we really appreciate the time spent on this feedback. This has enabled is to focus our resources more precisely on what tenants want and to discover where things need to improve. Next year’s survey takes place in February 2020 - if you are a Unipol tenant, tell us your views and help shape your not-for-profit housing.