A Sheffield councillor has dismissed a recent survey showcasing tenant dissatisfaction with city council housing as “irrelevant”.

From April 2023, the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) report has collected responses from council tenants annually on how happy they are with their housing.

The aim is also to use the data to compare councils across England, and apparently Sheffield is lagging behind the national standard.

However, Councillor Mark Jones says that the “beauty pageant of comparisons” should not be the sole focus when it comes to improvement.

He believes that every council has different issues, from ageing housing stock to tight finances elsewhere, but agrees the city needs to do more to improve services.

“Whether Sheffield’s the best or the worst, we still need to be better.”

“It is, frankly, irrelevant. We need to work harder to make sure that those in the city’s houses live in an environment that is safer, better, secure, and delivers the security of housing that everyone needs.

Compared nationally, Sheffield underperforms in almost all categories surveyed. When given a local comparison to figures released from Rotherham, the problem is even clearer.

Sheffield’s council tenants wait longer for repairs than they would in Rotherham, and are less satisfied when the work is done.

As shown in the chart above, they also feel significantly less safe, and see a worse response to anti-social behaviour.

Demand is also sky-high, with an estimated 1 in 20 people in the city currently on the waiting list for council housing.

This list is costly to maintain.

A report to today’s Finance and Performance Policy committee sets out the price of maintaining the register at over £200,000 in staffing costs annually.

With local government budgets strained, it is unclear how soon it will be until Sheffield’s council housing is brought fully up to scratch and tenants signal their approval.