Year in Review: A Look back at 2024-2025
A look back at 2024-2025
I am pleased to introduce this year’s Housing and Neighbourhoods Annual Report, which highlights our progress during 2024–2025 and reflects the voices and experiences of our tenants. Over the past year, we have continued to focus on improving the services that matter most to you—keeping homes safe and well‑maintained, delivering timely and effective repairs, supporting tenants through changing financial circumstances, and strengthening our neighbourhoods and communities.
This report provides a transparent overview of our performance against the Regulator for Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures, demonstrates how we have invested in homes and local areas, and shares real stories that show the impact of our work.
While we are proud of the improvements achieved, we know there is more to do. We remain committed to listening to tenants, acting on your feedback, and ensuring that your home and neighbourhood are places you can feel safe, supported, and proud of.
James Clark, Director of Housing
Your satisfaction with the service that we provide
Every month we call 350 tenants to ask how satisfied you are with our service. The Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) tells us the questions we must ask. Tenants' answers provide data for 12 of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) which we have to report to the Regulator.
We must ask tenants about different parts of our service. This means that we can give you information about how well we are performing. The Regulator uses this information to monitor our performance.
These are our results for the first two years that the Regulator has collected this data.
Our performance improved in all of these measures in 2024-2025 compared to 2023-2024.
The full data set of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures can be accessed on the Regulator’s website.
You can see month-by-month results of our surveys here.
We also ask tenants about our Landlord Commitments.
Our performance also improved in all of these measures in 2024-2025.
We have set realistic targets that also challenge us to improve our services. We based our targets on how similar landlords have performed in the last year. Similar landlords are those with more than 15,000 homes and are typically in large towns and cities outside of London.
Thank you to everyone who took part in one of our surveys.
Looking After Your Home
We spent over £63 million on maintaining and repairing our homes this year. Our performance in this area improved last year, but we still need to do better and are working hard to keep improving.
The Regulator measures our performance in a number of areas related to the safety of our homes.
In 2024-2025, we performed as follows:
- Required annual gas safety checks done – 99.3% (down 0.1%)
- Required fire risk assessments done – 92.8% (down 7.2%)
- Required communal passenger lift safety checks done – 100% (no change)
- Required asbestos surveys or inspections done – 100% (no change)
- Required water risk assessments done – 100% (no change)
The government's Decent Homes Standard sets the standard that our homes must meet. We are in the middle of a big project to complete Stock Condition Surveys on our homes. These surveys will highlight where homes are not up to the required standard. Many of our homes have not been surveyed for a long time, so we expected an increase in those not meeting the Decent Homes Standard.
Homes not meeting the decent homes standard – 5.4% (up 3.1%)
Repairs
When we ask tenants for comments during our calls, 'repairs' is the word most often used. We take this seriously and are working hard to improve our performance in this area. The Regulator follows our repairs performance very closely.
In 2024-2025 we:
- Completed over 80% of repairs during the first visit.
- Completed 71% of non-emergency repairs within timescale, up 3% from the previous year.
- Completed 91% of emergency repairs within timescale, up 26% from the previous year.
Empty properties
We have worked extremely hard to reduce the number of 'void', i.e. empty properties. Our Voids team began work in November 2023, when we had 1,200 voids. In 2024-2025, this reduced to around 700. In that time, we have also recovered £85,000 from tenants who have damaged properties. We have recruited over 90 apprentices to support this work.
Some of our repairs workers and apprentices and a new kitchen recently fitted in a void property
How We Invested In Homes and Neighbourhoods
Some of our new properties at Corker Bottoms.
Kitchens, Bathrooms, Windows and Doors
We are continually replacing and improving kitchens, bathrooms, boilers and electrical systems. We also replace windows and doors that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard. We also continue to work on empty properties that also require major improvements.
New kitchens and bathrooms
New roof, door and windows on a property in Richmond
Estate Management
Our Estates teams continue to work hard to improve areas used by our tenants and we invest large amounts of money to support them. Over the year, they carried out over 140,000 separate actions to improve our estates.
Over 80,000 waste disposal and bins maintenance jobs completed
More than 5,000 grounds jobs completed
More than 11,000 litter and fly-tipping removals
Almost 40,000 cleaning jobs completed
Over 7,000 health and safety hazards resolved
Tenant scrutiny
A group of our tenants had a close look at Estate Services and reported to managers with some recommendations, including:
- Workers to litter pick and tidy before cutting grass - this is part of the agreed standard and managers followed this up with operatives.
- Make it easier to contact the Estates Services teams - this is being dome by local estate newsletters, the Local Area Housing Forums and forms part of the Estate Services Action Plan.
- Managers to look at where services are currently good and learn lessons - this forms part of the Estate Services Action Plan.
- Block cleaning staff to be better allocated - more block cleaning staff were recruited in 2024 and all teams are now full.
- Remove fly tipping more quickly - we responded to over 4,500 reports of fly-tipping and removed the waste within 24 hours in over 99% of cases.
Communal door before and after works.
Pavement and green area before and after works.
Supporting Tenants
Rent and support
We support you to pay your rent, reduce any arrears, apply for eligible benefits, and manage your overall living costs. Rent collected is used to keep homes in good repair and to provide services to you. If a tenant leaves their tenancy with arrears, we will seek to collect the money owed.
Our Financial Inclusion Team (IMFIT) team is here to support tenants with their income and rent.
Case Study: Mr M
Mr M’s Housing Benefit was cancelled due to the change to Universal Credit. He was understandably confused and distressed about this. The IMFIT team arranged to visit Mr M in his home and helped him to call the DWP and sort out his claim. We helped him to add his housing costs to his Universal Credit claim, but it was too late to cover the first month’s rent. We arranged a hardship payment to cover this. Mr M had no family or friends to help him and without the visit from our team, he would have fallen in to arrears and struggled to get the support he deserved.
Case Study: Mrs D
Mrs D had fallen into arrears and was keen to move due to a serious medical condition. When we contacted Mrs D, it also became clear that her husband was not getting paid on the correct date. After struggling to get by for some time, and using their savings to pay for travel costs to and from hospital, they were at a financial breaking point.
We worked with the Neighbourhood Team and hospital and were able to get funding for Mrs D and Mr D via the Household Support Fund and Yorkshire Water Support. This helped them to get on top of their rent and bills and ensured the they had a positive start to life in their new home, and to sustain their new tenancy successfully.
If you are worried about paying your rent, we are here to help.
Visit our website to see how we can support you and check your entitlement to benefits.
Our performance on rent
- In 2024-2025, we collected 99.1% of rent due – over £174 million.
- There were 72 evictions for rent arrears and 3 evictions for anti-social behaviour.
We always try to work with tenants who are having difficulties paying their rent. We will only take eviction action as a last resort, if other attempts to recover arrears are unsuccessful.
We will also investigate cases where it is clear that fraud is taking place - see the case studies below.
Case Study: Right to Buy fraud and illegal subletting
One of our Housing Fraud Enforcement Officers (HFEO) found that a tenant was claiming benefits at an address not linked to their tenancy. There was an active Right to Buy application on the property, and it was found that the joint tenant was also living elsewhere. One of the tenants had previously benefitted from the Right to Buy scheme.
After being interviewed, the tenants withdrew the Right to Buy application and then gave up the property after it became clear that they were also illegally subletting it.
The outcome was that the fraud team prevented an inappropriate Right to Buy sale, ended an illegal sublet and recovered the property. This made it available for allocation to a tenant in genuine need.
Another 10 homes were recovered throughout the year due to illegal subletting.
Case Study: Right to Buy denied due to non-residency
The fraud team suspected that a tenant was not residing at a property that they had applied to purchase via the Right to Buy scheme. When interviewed, the tenant admitted that they intended to move out when the Right to Buy was complete.
The Right to Buy application was denied and the property was recovered to reallocation.
Tenant Voice
We work hard to engage with our tenants and find out what they are think and feel about our services.
- Over 4,000 tenants surveyed as part of our neighbourhood satisfaction survey, providing an opportunity to capture their feedback and help make improvements.
- 80% of tenants felt they were treated fairly and with respect in 2024-25.
Our tenants and staff jointly run a number of groups and projects that any tenant is welcome to join. Have a look at our Housing Hub for details.
Our work in the community
Our Engagement and Development Officers provide support for tenant groups and support them to put on events throughout the year.
Case Study: Crookes and Upper Walkley TARA April Fools’ Christmas
Crookes Upper Walkley TARA (tenants and Residents’ Association) came up with an amazing idea last year. The conversation went something like this:
“Shall we not have a Christmas event this year because everyone is so busy around December and the weather is always awful, but let’s have an April Fools Christmas party, something to look forward to in the New Year.”
The event was amazing and successful even Father Christmas came, and everybody received a present and of course a wonderful buffet Councillors and the Local Area Committee members also attended.
It was a joy to watch, with everyone singing and dancing bringing the community together and helping to make a better neighbourhood.
We also support tenants to use all of their abilities and talents to improve their communities.
Case Study: Community Champion Saeid Hashemi
In case you didn’t see this for yourselves, we would like to take the opportunity to share a heartwarming good news story which was recently featured on BBC News.
Saeid is a Community Champion at Learn for Life and is also an active member of the Westminster Tenants and Residents Association at Lodge Moor.
He came to the UK as an asylum seeker and was granted refugee status. He settled in Sheffield and has made the city his home where the community has welcomed him with open arms. Saeid has gone on to work and support his local area through a number of voluntary and community-based roles.
One of these roles is through Sheffield City Council’s partnership with Learn for Life Enterprise. This is invaluable work being delivered by our partners and is designed to get tenants digitally connected, and this is where Saeid has given back by supporting tenants to get digitally active.
Saeid gives so much back to the local area, not only supporting and helping tenants and residents with their digital skills, but he has done several jobs helping to improve the area. Saeid also plays the guitar and has led a number of singalongs at the TARA.
Saeid states that the community, in particular the local Tenants and Residents Association (TARA) have looked after him and that he considers them his family. He said, “They have supported me and allowed me to develop my language skills, which has been…beneficial in preparation for my exams”.
On behalf of the Engagement Team, we would like to pass on our thanks and gratitude to Saeid and the rest of the TARA who do some amazing work in the community.
Complaints
It is important that our tenants know how to get in touch with us and to make complaints. The Regulator also uses Tenant Satisfaction Measures to look at our performance with respect to complaints.
Stage 1 complaints
Most stage 1 complaints can be sorted out quickly, often with an explanation or an apology. The guidance says that we must respond fully to Stage 1 complaints within 10 working days of the complaint being acknowledged.
Stage 2 complaints
If you are not happy with our response to your complaint, it will move to stage 2. The guidance says that we must respond fully to Stage 2 complaints within 20 working days of the complaint being acknowledged.
For more information on making a complaint, see the Housing Ombudsman Service's guidance.
In 2024-2025, we received:
- 2,523 Stage 1 complaints, equivalent to 66 per 1,000 homes.
- 185 Stage 2 complaints, equivalent to 5 per 1,000 homes.
We responded to:
- 64% of Stage 1 complaints within the Complaint Handling Code timescales.
- 22% of Stage 2 complaints within the Complaint Handling Code timescales.
Support for our tenants
Anti-social behaviour (ASB)
We encourage all tenants to report anti-social behaviour. We always try to resolve situations without using legal action while providing a high level of support to victims. Full details on how to get support for ASB as a council tenant are available here.
The Regulator for Social Housing closely monitors ASB cases and we must send them our data each year. In 2024-2025, there were:
- 2,639 anti-social behaviour cases, equivalent to 69 per 1,000 homes.
- 44 anti-social behaviour cases that involved hate incidents, equivalent to just over 1 per 1,000 homes.
Domestic Abuse
We take domestic abuse very seriously
We will always do everything in our power to help tenants who are subject to abuse in their home.
Case Study – Holly (not the tenant’s real name)
Holly is in her 20s and came to Sheffield to get away from her abusive partner. Holly had a history of being homeless and of mental health conditions. Holly’s goals were to find a safe place to live and to begin work in Sheffield.
When Holly presented as homeless, she explained that the domestic abuse was being investigated by the police: Holly also contacted Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS) who completed an assessment with her.
Holly was placed in temporary accommodation and allocated a Housing Solutions Officer, who supported her by:
- Ensuring that the temporary accommodation was available for as long as Holly needed it.
- Working with IDAS and the police, so that Holly would not have to go over the traumatic incidents again.
- Referring Holly to the Financial Inclusion Team.
- Taking Holly’s case to a multi-agency meeting where a support and safety plan was agreed.
Holly found employment while living in temporary accommodation and was permanently rehoused three months after first presenting as homeless in a location close to her support network.
Where your rent goes
About our homes
About our tenants
How You Can Get Involved
There are several ways in which you can help to improve services for all residents.
Click on the links below to see how you can get involved and make a difference.
Sheffield's Housing and Neighbourhoods Service | Facebook
Tenants and Residents Virtual Community
Communication and Tenant Satisfaction Panel (CATS Panel)
Homes Panel: our repairs, quality and improvement tenant forum
Mystery Shopping and Scrutiny of Housing Services
Other Sources of Information
Regulatory standards for landlords - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Our Landlord Commitments | Sheffield City Council
Housing service performance | Sheffield City Council
Viewpoint - Giving your customers a voice (viewpoint-research.co.uk)