Reflections from Housing 2025

Trust, Tenants, and Tough Truths

We had a great time exhibiting at Housing 2025 – and even better, we got the chance to listen in on some powerful sessions that cut to the heart of tenant experience, complaints culture, and how we use data (or don’t).

Voice of the Tenant

One standout from the Voice of the Tenant session came from L&G, who boldly stated:

“Our operating models are killing our purpose.” 

The message? When we’re chasing compliance, we risk losing sight of the actual tenant experience.

They’re taking a fresh approach – using AI, not to replace empathy, but to scale it. Over 5,000 repairs have now been handled by their AI assistant, Brolly – aiming to fix the 37% of repair interactions that still don’t get resolved first time.

Wordnerds also made waves – describing themselves not just as an AI platform but leaning into their corpus linguistics and statistics roots to uncover deeper feedback insights. No frills – just smart analysis.

We also loved hearing how Guinness is proactively building an early warning system to spot potential complaints before they escalate. That’s the kind of forward-thinking approach we’re all for.

Complaints - the only metric that matters

In the Complaints Culture session, Yvonne Davies hit the nail on the head: we’ve got to recognise the power imbalance between tenants and landlords.

Campaigns like Berneslai Homes’ “It’s OK to Complain” are helping shift the culture – but vulnerable groups, especially older and disabled tenants, still fear the repercussions of speaking up.

Debra Edwards (Haringey’s Supported Housing Continuous Improvement Group) reminded us how hard it can be for those with additional needs to even find the complaints channels, let alone navigate them.

It’s not just about access – it’s about language, tone, and trust.

From Rotherham, Stuart Purcell shared a more data-led story – using TSM data alongside complaints to benchmark performance, and running a Learning from Complaints tenant panel that plays feedback directly back to services. There’s real value in closing that feedback loop.

Meanwhile, MTVH’s Jon Foster shared some practical steps on improving triage, training staff on vulnerability, and making sure every stage 2 complaint is now signed off by an exec director – a strong signal that complaints matter across the whole organisation.

Finally, in the session with Kate Dodsworth from the Regulator of Social Housing, some familiar themes cropped up: poor data, poor repairs, and poor accessibility are still dogging the sector. She’s now digging into the second year of TSM data and starting to see where the long-term gaps lie – particularly in urban areas, shared ownership, and transparency.

The word that kept cropping up? Trust. Because sometimes, it’s not about compensation or case law – it’s just about being listened to.

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