Summary of findings

Profile of sample
The majority of respondents told us they occupied one bed flats. Almost a third (31.1%) of residents has lived in their current homes for between 1 and 3 years. Just over 40% of residents have lived in their current flats for more than five years.

Overall satisfaction
84% express overall satisfaction with the service provided by us. This is comparable with our 2003 survey of ex-Airways schemes and 2005 survey of ex-Apex schemes where 83% and 89% respectively expressed overall satisfaction with the service provided. 7 of the 16 schemes surveyed this year have satisfaction levels in excess of 90%.

Residents' homes
Encouragingly, more than 9 out of 10 residents are satisfied with their accommodation block as a place to live, with less than 1 in 40 expressing dissatisfaction. When asked about different aspects of their flats, impressively all satisfaction ratings were in excess of 75%.

Feeling settled
An overwhelming number of residents (95%) told us that they feel settled in their homes. However, of residents who feel unsettled over a third do not know where to go for help and support. Feeling settled has a large impact on overall satisfaction, and this is an area that needs to be addressed in the future.

Service charge, support charge and rent as value for money
An indication of the high levels of satisfaction amongst tenants is that 81% are happy that their rent represents good value for money. However, nearly 1 in 4 residents are not aware what their service charge covers and 30% of residents are unaware what their support charge covers.

Satisfaction with services available to residents
Satisfaction levels with services available to residents are very promising. 88% and 78% respectively were satisfied with the lounge areas and lunch clubs, and 91% of residents were happy with the cleaning of communal areas. Encouragingly more than 19 out of 20 residents (95.7%) are happy with the service from the scheme manager.

Communications
Of those residents who stated that they did contact us, 60% phoned and 17.5% visited the office. From the comments received it is clear that most of the phone calls were directed to the scheme managers' office. With reference to how residents would prefer to contact the landlord, interestingly only 2 residents stated that they would prefer home visits.

Tenant involvement
Interest in getting involved in residents groups was low with 72% of respondents not even interested in being involved in their local residents association. Encouragingly however, 21% of respondents said they were already involved.

Conclusion
Overall, tenants express good levels of satisfaction with the range of services they receive from A2 and with many aspects of their homes. However there are clear areas where A2 Housing Group is not performing as well and if tackled satisfaction should increase in future surveys.

As some confusion seems to have occurred with a few of the questions, focus groups, door knocking and the use of a 'next of kin' questionnaire are all alternative ways of measuring satisfaction that should be considered for future surveys.

To find out what we have done with these results, see our 'you said we did' section.