We’ve engaged with c3,500 tenants to understand their experience of being a Midland Heart tenant through surveys, in depth scrutiny reviews and focus groups, as well as through our mystery shopping and estate champion programmes.

We also collect insight into our tenants’ experiences through over 10,000 transactional and tenant perception surveys which is added to learning and insight, from when we have worked with our tenants to put things right and when they have gone wrong through our complaints process. Last year this was utilised by over 1,000 tenants.

Rent setting: 

We engage tenants each year to understand the impact and affordability of rent setting. This year we surveyed over 1000 tenants from different tenures and backgrounds as well as holding discussions through focus groups. We analysed arrears by geography and different demographics, discussed with tenants their priorities for investing income and explored how we could best support tenants with additional needs to be able to make rent payments.

Treating tenants equally: 

One of our core values is that we treat all our tenants fairly and with respect, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or religious belief. This year we launched a programme of Equality testing to make sure we understood the different needs of our tenants and that our decision making when delivering services to tenants was fair and equitable.

Damp and mould:

We worked with a group of tenants who had experienced damp and mould in their home to review how effective we are at responding to these reports. They benchmarked our services against the best practice spotlight report from the Ombudsman and added their own perspectives. This has led to a 10-point improvement plan which is tracked and reported back to the My Impact group.

A new dedicated resource has strengthened our ability to respond to issues of damp & mould and disrepair. Driven by tenant insights we have implemented key measures to combat rising cases from unfavourable weather conditions and a heightened awareness of the issue, including:

• Appointing Special Repairs Client Liaison Officers who will focus on engagement with our tenants.
• Strengthening the damp and mould subcontractor resource capacity to allow works to be delivered within quicker response times.
• Engagement with our technical support providers AICO Homelink sensors, to further imbed sensors within our homes.