Sheffield council tenants say they are happier with services
A survey of Sheffield council tenants shows “a mixed but generally improving picture” of satisfaction with housing services.
Scores increased on 11 out of 12 measures of how tenants perceive services, including repairs, which has long been a controversial issue.
A meeting of Sheffield City Council’s housing policy will discuss the survey results next Thursday (June 18).
A report to the committee says: “Overall satisfaction with the service has remained broadly stable across the year, fluctuating between 64.2% and 74.3% and finishing on 69.4% for the whole of 2025/26.
“There was continued improvement in several service areas, particularly repairs and aspects of neighbourhood and estate management – for example, satisfaction with communal areas improved from 60.6% in 2024/25 to 66.0% in 2025/26.” There were also improvements in satisfaction with repairs and the handling of anti-social behaviour.
“However, satisfaction with complaints handling remains comparatively low and was the only perception measure that returned a poorer performance in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25, albeit a very small drop from 33.8% to 33.2%”, the report adds.
Improvement
“The handling of complaints remains a key area for improvement, both with respect to the speed of response and the way that they are being dealt with.”
The number of tenants who felt the council as landlord treated them fairly and with respect was 81.7% and 77.9% felt confident that their homes are safe.
The data is based on surveys of 350 tenants every month. The council has 38,098 properties.
The report says that actual repairs performance has improved during 2025/26, particularly in relation to the proportion of both emergency and non-emergency repairs completed within target timescales.
On-time completion of non-emergency repairs improved from 70.9% in 2024/25 to 75.1% in 2025/26 and emergency repairs from 91.1% to 96.7%.
The report notes: “These improvements align with enhanced operational processes, increased capacity, and strengthened performance management arrangements within the service.
Mixed
Sustaining this performance will be important moving into 2026/27.”
Performance in complaints handling was described as mixed, with an overall response rate of 52% to the first stage of complaints within the expected timescales. This has increased for stage two complaints from a low 22% in 2024/25 to 36% in 2025/26.
The council has set a target of 85% for the coming year, while accepting this must hit 100%.
The housing department dealt with 100% of fire safety, lift safety and asbestos problems. The figure for gas safety was 99.3% and that for water safety related to legionella, the bacteria that causes legionnaires’ disease, was 92.3%.