STATUS 2009 




Moat recently conducted its STATUS survey of residents living in general needs, sheltered and supported accommodation and home owners who have purchased through the HomeBuy scheme. The survey was conducted with a sample of residents. We had a fantastic response rate of 48% and we are extremely grateful that so many of our residents took the time to complete the survey. Equally, the highly accurate results achieved mean that we can assume these views are representative of the whole population of residents.

The STATUS survey is the Standardised Tenant Satisfaction Survey as set by the National Housing Federation. Housing Associations are required to conduct a STATUS survey every three years to comply with regulation. Moat want to improve on this and have committed to conducting an annual survey of residents to ensure your views are known.

Key findings 2009

The majority of Moat’s residents are satisfied with the services provided by us. Satisfaction has moved up to 74% from 69% (general needs and sheltered) with 11 out of 14 satisfaction indicators improving where comparison is possible with the 2007 survey results including quality of home, condition of property, neighbourhood, being kept informed and the repair service.  Satisfaction has fallen very slightly in relation to customer contact and value for money. 

Some of the key findings were:

  • 74% are satisfied with the overall service from Moat
  • 82% are satisfied with the quality of their home
  • 86% of Moat home owners were satisfied with the quality of their home
  • 78% are satisfied with the general condition of their home
  • 77% find staff helpful
  • 67% are satisfied with the overall repairs and maintenance service
  • All aspects of the actual repair work are rated as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ by 72% or more of tenants who had a repair completed in the last 12 months
  • 78% of Moat home owners are happy with the neighbourhood they live in.
  • 75% feel they obtain good value for money from their rent
  • 76% are satisfied with the neighbourhood as a place to live


When Moat’s key satisfaction ratings (for general needs and sheltered residents combined) are compared with the peer group of landlords (chosen to be similar in size and nature to Moat), Moat scored slightly above the peer group averages: 1% higher for overall satisfaction, 2% higher in relation to value for money and 3% for the quality of the home. 78% of Moat residents were satisfied with the condition of their home, the same as the average for the peer group. 

Residents were asked, from a list provided, to identify which three services were most important to them and therefore should be a priority for Moat.

General needs residents selected:
Repairs and maintenance
Quality of the home
Dealing with anti-social behaviour

Sheltered residents selected:
Repairs and maintenance
Alarm call system
Quality of home and being kept informed

Supported residents selected:
Quality of the home
Repairs and maintenance
Being kept informed

Moat home owners selected:
The time taken from reporting a communal repair to starting the work
Improving car parking, dealing with litter and anti-social behaviour.
The quality of the information we provide

How much do key services need improving?

The repairs and maintenance service was identified as an important service by the majority of respondents. All residents awarded high ratings for most individual aspects of the work with only the time taken before the work started rated rather less highly.

The survey found that satisfaction with the repairs service was the most important driver of overall satisfaction with Moat as theirlandlord. Satisfaction with repairs was also strongly influenced by the quality of the repair, followed by the time taken for work to start and how quickly the job was completed.

Key driver analysis also found that, as for other landlords, an important influence on overall satisfaction was satisfaction with the final outcome of contact.

A further area for improvement is demonstrating how residents views and comments change our service. There are lots of opportunities for involvement at Moat for our residents, but we need to improve in telling you what we do with the information you have given us and what we have done to make a difference to the service for all residents.

Actions to be taken

Residents said Moat did not take residents views into account.
We will be ensuring that we report back to residents on a regular basis to ensure all resident involvement is captured and that changes made as a result of resident feedback are widely publicised.

Residents said Moat must improve the repairs and maintenance service as this is one of the most important service areas for residents.
We are currently in the process of procuring a long-term repairs partner and residents are involved in helping us with this process.

Residents said satisfaction with the final outcome of contact has dropped.
We measure all our staff on their responsiveness and check to see where actions are overdue. We also use mystery shopping to test our staff knowledge and whether actions are carried out within service standards. All staff should also ask you if they have answered your enquiry to your satisfaction so that they can ensure they have given you the information you need.

Residents said they wanted improved information at sign up.
We will be reviewing our welcome pack and ensuring that our residents’ handbook is updated with new information.

Residents said they were not satisfied with the complaints service.
We continually monitor complaints to ensure that responses are sent on time to residents. Our response rate for 2009-2010 was 95.2% which is an improvement of 10% on the previous year.

We will also introduce an audit of complaints responses during this year to check that staff are addressing all issues raised in complaints and that responses are positive and professional.

Because this three yearly, large-scale survey tends to give us fairly broad results, we’re keen to delve a bit deeper and find out more about how you view our service. We have engaged a respected independent consultancy, Tribal, to carry out further research with Moat home owners on specific aspects of our service to make sure we have a clear picture and can define more closely what residents want to see improve.

These are just some of the items we will be working on using the valuable information our residents have provided to us via the STATUS survey. We will publish updates on progress or results achieved in further editions of Home News, Home Owner and via our website.

If you are interested and would like to read more you can find a full copy of the final report by clicking here.