Accredited official statistics

English Housing Survey 2022 to 2023: satisfaction and complaints - fact sheet

Updated 12 February 2025

Applies to England

The English Housing Survey (EHS) collects information on the housing circumstances of households in England, as well as details of the quality and condition of homes. This publication sets out key information about how satisfied households were with their housing circumstances and the extent of complaints.

The fact sheet first examines self-reported satisfaction across tenures by different demographic groups. Respondents were asked their level of satisfaction about various aspects of housing, including how satisfied they were with their accommodation, the housing services provided by their landlord or freeholder and the repairs and maintenance carried out by their landlord or freeholder. Those who were dissatisfied with the repairs and maintenance were also asked for their reasons.

The fact sheet goes on to examines complaints in the rented sectors by different demographic groups. It looks at households that considered making a complaint and follows them through the decisions they made - whether they made a complaint, how happy they were with the response and the reasons behind the complaints.

Throughout the fact sheet categories have been grouped for ease. For example, levels of satisfaction are grouped so those who said they were either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied are referred to as ‘satisfied’.

1. Satisfaction with accommodation

Most households were satisfied with their current accommodation. The majority were satisfied with their accommodation (88%) with over half feeling ‘very satisfied’ (56%). Fewer than 1 in 10 households felt dissatisfied with their accommodation (7%) and only 3% felt ‘very dissatisfied’, Annex Table 1. The proportion of households satisfied with their accommodation has decreased over the last 10 years. In 2012-13, 91% reported being satisfied and 60% very satisfied, Live Table FA5401.

Most households were satisfied with their accommodation.

Overall, owner occupiers were more likely to be satisfied (94%) than all other tenures (82% for private renters and 74% for social renters). Compared to 10 years ago, owner occupiers and social renters are less satisfied (95% and 80% respectively) and private renters were unchanged. Within the social rented sector, housing association renters (76%) were more likely to be satisfied than local authority renters (71%). Local authority (20%) and housing association (17%) renters were also more likely to be dissatisfied with their accommodation than private renters (10%) and owner occupiers (3%).

Households living in London were most likely to report feeling dissatisfied with their accommodation (10%) and there were no significant differences between the other regions (5% to 7%). This is most prominent in the local authority sector, where over a quarter of local authority renters in London were dissatisfied (26%) compared with local authority renters outside of London (18%).

Households who did not receive any housing support (82%) were more likely to be satisfied with their accommodation than those who did receive housing support (72%), Annex Table 2.

Households who did not receive housing support were more satisfied with their accommodation than those who did.

By tenure, housing association and private renters who did not receive any housing support (80% and 85%, respectively) were more likely to be satisfied than those who received housing support (both 73%). There was no significant difference among local authority renters.

Overall, households with a white household reference person (HRP) were more likely to report being satisfied with their current accommodation (90%) compared to households with an ethnic minority HRP (79%). This trend was also observed among owner occupiers, social renters and private renters. Similarly, there was a higher proportion of ethnic minority households who reported feeling dissatisfied (12%) compared with white households (6%). This relationship is seen in all tenures, Annex Table 3.

White HRP households were more satisfied with their current accommodation compared with ethnic minority HRP households.

2. Satisfaction with repairs and maintenance

Renters and owner occupier leaseholders were asked how satisfied they were with the repairs and/or maintenance provided by their landlord or freeholder. Just under two-thirds of households said they were satisfied (63%), 10% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and over a quarter were dissatisfied (28%).

Satisfaction was then assessed against the Decent Homes Standard. Generally, households in non-decent homes were more likely to be dissatisfied with repairs and maintenance (31%) than households in decent homes (27%), Annex Tables 5.

For a dwelling to be considered ‘decent’ under the Decent Homes Standard it must:

• meet the statutory minimum standard for housing (the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) since April 2006), homes which contain a Category 1 hazard under the HHSRS are considered non-decent
• be in a reasonable state of repair
• have reasonably modern facilities and services
• provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort

When asked why they were dissatisfied, 1 in 3 (29%) households said the ‘landlord is slow to get things done’, over a quarter mentioned that the ‘landlord does not bother’ (26%), 20% mentioned ‘other’ reasons, 13% said the ‘landlord does the bare minimum’ and 12% said the ‘work done is of poor quality’, Annex Tables 6.

Reason for dissatisfaction with repairs and maintenance.

Owner occupiers who are leaseholders were less likely to report that the ‘landlord is slow to get things done’ and the ‘landlord does not bother’ (17% and 13%, respectively) than all other tenures. Instead, there was a higher proportion of owner occupier leaseholders reporting that they were dissatisfied for ‘other’ reasons (35%) when compared to all other tenures (15% to 20%).  

3. Satisfaction with housing services

Over two-thirds of households were satisfied with the housing services provided by their landlord or freeholder (68%), 12% were neither satisfied or dissatisfied and 19% were dissatisfied, Annex Table 7.

Private renters were more likely to report being satisfied with the housing services provided than all other tenures.

Private renters were more likely to report being satisfied with the housing services provided (76%) than all other tenures (51% to 65%). Social renters were also more likely to report being feeling satisfied with the housing services (64%) than owner occupier leaseholders (51%).

4. Average yearly service charge paid by leaseholders

The average amount owner occupier leaseholders paid per week for their service charge was £32 which equated to £1,650 a year (mean). The median weekly charge was £24 equating to £1,222 per year, Annex Table 8.

The average (mean) amount leaseholders paid per week for their service charge was £32 per week or £1,650 per year.

Leaseholders’ satisfaction with amount of service charge

Over half of owner occupier leaseholders said their service charge was ‘fair’ (52%) given the services provided by the freeholder, nearly half said the amount was ‘too high’ (45%) and the remaining 3% said it was too low, Annex Table 9.

Owner occupier leaseholders in London were more likely to consider the amount they paid ‘too high’ (54%) than owner occupier leaseholders outside London (42%), especially when compared with owner occupier leaseholders living in Yorkshire and the Humber (29%) and the North West (20%). There was a higher prevalence of owner occupier leaseholders living in the North West (75%) who thought they paid a ‘fair’ amount of service charge compared with owner occupier leaseholders in the South East (50%), South West (49%), East of England (36%) and East Midlands (20%).

The proportion of leaseholders reporting service charges that were ‘too high’ given the services they received varied across regions.

5. Considering a complaint

Social renters (29%) were more likely to have considered making a complaint to their landlord or letting agent in the 12 months prior to the survey than private renters (25%), Annex Table 10.

Private renters in non-decent homes were more likely to consider making a complaint (30%) than private renters in decent homes (22%). There was no significant difference by decency in the social rented sector, Annex Table 11.

6. Complaint made

Of those who considered making a complaint, 79% of private and social renters went on to complain. If they did, renters were asked who they complained to. Over half of social renters who considered a complaint said they complained to their landlord (58%), under a quarter complained to the tenant management organisation (23%) and 21% did not a complaint. For private renters, fewer than half (44%) reported making a complaint to their landlords, around 40% complained to their agent and 21% did not make a complaint, Annex Table 12.

Of those who considered making a complaint, housing association tenants in non-decent homes were less likely to make the complaint (59%) than those in decent homes (80%). Similarly, housing association tenants in homes with a category 1 Hazard were less likely to make the complaint (55%) than those without a hazard (79%). Housing association tenants in homes with damp were more likely to make a complaint (83% did) than those in homes with category 1 hazards or in non-decent homes. There was no significant difference between these categories in local authority homes, however the differences observed in housing association homes were strong enough to suggest a relationship across the social rented sector.

Renters in non-decent homes were less likely to make a complaint (68%) than those in decent homes (80%) in the social rented sector. In the private rented sector, there was no significant difference in the likelihood of complaining between those in non-decent and decent homes.

7. Satisfaction with response after complaint

Social renters who made a complaint were most likely to report they were unhappy with the response. Nearly half (47%) of private renters and 66% of social renters said they were not happy with the response to their complaint. Private renters tended to say they were more satisfied with the response to their complaints than social renters. About 17% of social renters said they were happy with ‘some’ of the response, and a further 17% said they were happy with ‘all’ of the responses from their landlord or agent. A quarter of private renters said they were happy about ‘some’ of the response and a further 28% with ‘all’ of the response, Annex Table 13.

Private renters were more satisfied with the response to their complaints.

8. Reason behind complaints

Those who complained were asked what their complaint was about. The question was multiple choice and respondents could report complaining about more than one thing. Social renters mainly reported complaining about repairs (89%) followed by: the quality of their home (26%), anti-social behaviour in the area (11%), neighbours (9%), behaviour of the landlord (4%) and behaviour of tenancy management organisation (3%). Private renters complained mostly about repairs (79%), the quality of their home (32%) and the behaviour of the landlord (8%), Annex Table 14.

Social renters were more likely to complain about anti-social behaviour (11%) than private renters (5%), while private renters were more likely to complain about the quality of their homes (32%) than social renters (26%).

Private renters were more likely to complain about the quality of their home than social renters while social renters were more likely to complain about anti-social behaviour than private renters.