An index that measures how comfortable tenants are in their home

Responding to the last question, Gavin Cansfield, chief executive at Settle, is refreshingly honest. “I don’t think it’s revolutionary,” he tells Inside Housing. “It’s not the science of the rocket. I don’t think these are the kind of sophisticated algorithms that are going to tell me about psychodynamics in the neighbourhood. But they are a lens that allow us to think about how we invest in our homes, in our neighbourhoods.”

For Mr Cansfield, the introduction of the index is one of the ways that Settle is looking to change the relationship it – as a landlord – has with its tenants, and to reassess the balance between building new stock and making sure that those living in existing stock are happy.

“When we changed our name [from North Hertfordshire Homes] three years ago, you look at your purpose and I guess we were really keen that we had that balance between helping solve the housing crisis, but also making sure that we looked after existing tenants,” he explains. “We articulated that by talking about wanting to help customers feel comfortable in their homes. Those were the words we used.”

Out of the articulation of these new values, the Comfort Index emerged. But Settle insists it is far from a simple rebadging of something the landlord was already doing, in the form of a customer survey.

“It’s not the science of the rocket. But [the figures] are a lens that allow us to think about how we invest in our homes, in our neighbourhoods”

Rachel McFarlane, director of housing at Settle, says the fact the index both produces a measurable score and can be analysed in more detail by, for instance, tenure or type of housing, has allowed the association to change some of the ways it works with tenants.

“What you measure drives performance and so, for my teams, they know how important this is,” she emphasises. “For other organisations, it may well be [important] but it may not be quite as high on the agenda because it’s not being reported all the way up in the same way.”

One of the ways that the Comfort Index has changed how Settle works is that the results are seen at board level, just as a survey of stock condition or a financial audit would be. Changes that have been made as a result of the index so far include an increase in funding for community work and tackling ASB.

Ms McFarlane continues: “It’s given us a much better focus as we’ve changed the neighbourhood model; we have looked at how we can resource the… community work that we do. We’ve also specialised our ASB function and added resource, so that we can have specialists targeting preventative work.”

Boost in interaction

Other work in this area includes the establishment of a partnership with mental health charity Mind to offer counselling to residents experiencing ASB, Ms McFarlane says. The association has also introduced a new ‘community resilience’ post, the holder of which will look at the data collected through the Comfort Index and use it to help specific neighbourhoods tackle specific issues.

Settle is keen to stress that the index is an internal measure and that tenants themselves would not necessarily be aware of it, although it does say that it believes their experiences of their landlord would have improved over the past year.

Celine Islam has been a Settle tenant in Letchworth Garden City for five years, living with her husband and three children. She tells Inside Housing how she was already happier in her socially rented flat than when she rented in the private sector previously, but she does agree that the level of interaction has increased in recent months.

“[They have been] listening to our concerns and that does make us feel like they care about how we feel,” she says. “When before maybe we would fill in a survey but not hear back about anything further apart from a report, we had the opportunity to talk to them directly over a Teams meeting, and that definitely made us feel better.”

White paper links

Ms Islam says that she and her fellow residents have already seen the practical upshot of this increase in engagement. They have, for example, been told that the landlord is “working on” making a communal garden available for the residents of her block.

Additionally, she says that one of her older neighbours asked that one particular cleaner be sent to clean the communal area near her flat – something Ms Islam says makes a difference to the quality of her day.

This kind of engagement also comes at a time when the sector as a whole is re-examining the key relationship between tenants and landlords. The Social Housing White Paper last year put tenant engagement front and centre, and has made many housing associations think again about where their priorities lie.

“What gets me out of bed every morning is improving outcomes for residents. If it also turns out to be scientific, I’ll be delighted”

Mr Cansfield says the Comfort Index was not a direct response to the white paper, but he accepts that it captures an overarching mood within the sector that – in some cases – not enough was being done to look after existing tenants.

“We always saw the need not to lose focus on existing customers, [but] there was certainly a period where it was all about new supply [of homes],” he agrees, talking about the sector as a whole. “Before the white paper, we were trying to think in that way, and then the white paper comes out and we’re thinking ‘great, this really fits with how we’re thinking’, and actually the Comfort Index is something that will help us respond to the white paper.”

The changes that Ms Islam says she has already seen are relatively small, but Mr Cansfield says they are at the heart of what Settle is trying to achieve by examining the potentially vague concept of ‘comfort’.

He continues: “If this process drives better engagement with tenants, drives different behaviours from colleagues and drives a different business focus, then whether the numbers ‘mean something’ or not, I guess I can probably live with that a bit, because I’m getting outcomes for residents.

“What gets me out of bed every morning is improving outcomes for residents. If it also turns out to be scientific and it’s statistically robust, I’ll be delighted.”