The TSM process

There are 22 TSMs, including:

• 12 Tenant Perception Measures (TPMs) - we measure these through resident surveys
• 10 Management Information Measures (MIMs) - we measure these directly through information we hold on our systems.

You can learn more about TSMs, including details on each measure on the government’s website.

In December 2022, Optivo and Southern Housing Group merged to form a new organisation, Southern Housing.

The TSM performance results cover April 2023 to March 2024, so they apply to the newly merged organisation. To makes sure the results are fair we speak to residents from both previous landlords (both Optivo and Southern Housing Group), but we are now one new organisation.

We conduct our TSM surveys by telephone.

We have a team of Survey Advisors who call residents and invite them to share their feedback and experiences with us.

The survey can take between 10 minutes and 1 hour to complete, depending on the amount of feedback our residents would like to share with us.

We ask the questions the Regulator of Social housing (RSH)  has set out to ensure we get a full picture of our services.

We’ve also added in some extra questions of our own, as we’re keen to understand what residents think of their most recent interaction with us. 

We currently make calls all year round , Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm but are exploring early evening and weekend calls as well.

For a landlord of our size, the regulator says we must complete over 3,000 surveys with our residents.

• 2,309 for Low Cost Rental Accommodation
• 934 for Low Cost Home Ownership

This number is set to make sure we speak to enough residents to get a fair picture of the services we provide.

For 2023/24, we met these requirements and spoke to:

• 2,545 for Low Cost Rental Accommodation residents
• 934 for Low Cost Home Ownership residents.

We select residents to call randomly. We then take out anyone who has told us they don’t want to complete surveys. We also take out anyone we’ve surveyed in the last 3 months.

Landlords can select residents not to survey but only due to exceptional circumstances. We’ve not selected any residents to be excluded.

To make sure the results are fair, we monitor samples of who we speak to throughout the year. Each sample represents a different customer type or group. We ensure we speak to a variety of residents representative of the overall population of our residents.

Our samples include:

• The region you live in
• Your age
• Your gender
• Your ethnicity
• Disability
• The type of home you live in ( house or flat)
• Your tenure type
• Your previous landlord (Optivo or Southern Housing Group).

We work hard to make sure all groups of residents are represented fairly. For example, if 42% of our residents live in London, 42% of the surveys should be completed by people living in this area. Likewise, if 2% of our residents live in Supported Housing, we should survey 2%.

It may also seem a little unusual to include the past landlord as a sample type and it’s also not a specified requirement of the Regulator but because we know it can have a significant impact on the overall results, we have included it.

It’s almost impossible to meet the correct percentage for every sample type. So we then carry out additional checks to make sure any difference would not impact the overall results.

For example, if 68% of our residents are White British but we only survey 67%. We then have to carry out a number of calculations to ensure the difference wouldn’t significantly impact the TSM results. If it does, we must ‘weight’ the results. This means to give weighting to increase or decrease the results to ensure the sample is representative of the population.

It’s a complex process, however we’re pleased to say all samples have been met. 

We’ve a dedicated Research and Insight Team who make sure we’re meeting the requirements of the Regulator. We manage the whole process and it’s not outsourced.

In 2023, we did an audit to validate our approach and provide reassurances to both our governance and our residents that we are doing things correctly.

Our results, calculations and methodology are also reviewed by the Regulator.

This is the first year of the TSM questions, so there are no previous years to compare to.

Before we merged in December 2022 our two previous organisations both had slightly different ways of collecting resident feedback.

This year has been very much about understanding our performance through the eyes of our residents. Our focus is using this information to make improvements to our services.

Our full results for 2023/24 are available on our website.

View results for residents in low cost rental accommodation

View results for homeowners

Our TSM survey results are shared with our managers and leaders across the organisation every month. Our Research and Insight Team review all of the scores and comments to identify themes and trends.

We update our Board and Resident Panels on the results. We also share the improvement activity which is underway to help increase resident satisfaction.

We always welcome resident feedback and it’s easy to share this via our website.

Provide us with your feedback

You can also call, email or log feedback via our online resident portals. If you’d like to get involved, we’ve a range of opportunities for you to shape our services and hold us to account.