What is ‘good’ performance in our sector?

The tension between regulation and lived experience becomes clear when landlords set unrealistic targets. In one local authority, a voids manager with an average re-let time of 55 days was tasked with cutting it to 21 days in a matter of months – an almost impossible leap – as this was what the best peer landlords were achieving. By contrast, Housemark’s voids club heard how Curo halved its re-let times to approximately 25 days, but only after five years of sustained focus and operational change. 

Such examples underline the danger of chasing quartile performance positions for their own sake. Success cannot be delivered through silver bullets or headline targets. It is built incrementally, by layering good practice across services and relationships, from leadership to customer-facing teams and from staff to tenants. 

“The tension between regulation and lived experience becomes clear when landlords set unrealistic targets”

Sector evidence shows that better consumer inspection grades align with stronger outcomes across the board. Median results for landlords graded C1 by the Regulator of Social Housing include 77% overall satisfaction, 79% repairs satisfaction and 94% of complaints responded to within target times. These landlords also deliver services more efficiently, with costs per unit averaging £4,801 compared with £5,155 among C3 providers. 

Performance frameworks that focus solely on quantitative data miss an essential dimension: people’s lived experience. A truly human-centred approach requires blending statistics with qualitative insight. Open-ended survey questions, tenant panels and structured feedback loops can reveal why a service is working or failing in ways that percentages alone cannot. 

Consider a repairs process. From a tenant’s perspective, success might mean: a short call wait time, a knowledgeable advisor, a repair scheduled at a convenient time, completion on the first visit and good communication throughout. Each stage can be measured – from call handling to first-time fix rates – but the real test is whether the overall experience meets expectations. 

This kind of co-creation not only makes metrics more relevant, it also builds legitimacy. When residents can see their feedback shaping measures and decisions, confidence in landlords and the wider system grows. 

“From a tenant’s perspective, success might mean: a short call wait time, a knowledgeable advisor, a repair scheduled at a convenient time, completion on the first visit and good communication throughout”

Benchmarking plays a critical role in defining what “good” looks like. It allows landlords to understand not only whether their results are high or low, but also whether they are healthy. Take operating margins: a 60% margin might seem impressive to people unfamiliar with social housing, but in this sector, it signals something is not right. Landlords are expected to balance financial strength with a social mission, and benchmarking shows the sustainable norm lies closer to 20-30%. 

This context matters. Without it, organisations risk chasing extremes or misreading their own data. With it, they can see where improvement is realistic, where targets must be incremental, and where outliers reflect unhealthy practices rather than success. 

So, what should “good” look like in five years’ time? Benchmarking suggests that by 2030 the sector could reach median satisfaction scores nudging 80%, average repair times reduced to single figures and re-let times falling below 30 days. Progress is already visible: Raven, Acis, Midland Heart and Curo show what can be achieved when landlords combine a positive culture and tenant engagement with data-driven improvement. 

The wider challenge is to keep definitions of success under review. What matters today – from tackling mould to engaging tenants in governance – may not capture tomorrow’s priorities, whether that is net zero-carbon homes, digital accessibility or new models of community support. Annual reviews of KPIs, alongside regulator-led standards, will help ensure performance frameworks evolve with changing expectations. 

The most successful landlords will be those that move beyond measuring performance solely to tick boxes. Instead, they will define success in terms of what it feels like to tenants, staff and communities, and show through robust evidence that these experiences are being delivered. 

John Wickenden, research manager, Housemark