However, some of his comments on our report for London and Quadrant slightly miss the point. While he fairly highlights the potential value of tracking surveys focused on tenants recently in receipt of a service, he glosses over the ‘apples and pears’ problem of mixing results from such research with data from surveys drawing on a cross-section of all tenants.

In the same way, while rightly championing the generally higher response rate of telephone surveys, he ignores the argument that combining results from postal and telephone surveys is questionable. In this respect our report simply highlighted the need for consistency in housing associations’ measurement of tenant satisfaction.

Finally, the letter pointed to the suggestion that measured satisfaction rates are liable to be affected by the wider economic climate and asked where the evidence for this claim is to be found. Again, the answer is detailed in our full report as published on the L&Q website which cites the substantial drop in satisfaction with council services recorded by the 2008 Communities and Local Government department’s Place Survey alongside comparable 2006/07 best value performance indicators figures.

Hal Pawson, Heriot-Watt University

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