The Scottish Housing Regulator has today published an updated guide that simplifies and clarifies some of the steps for landlords to take when designing and carrying out surveys of their tenants and service users.

The new guidance allows landlords greater flexibility in carrying out surveys recognising the differences in size and operating circumstances of landlords across Scotland.

The Regulator commissioned survey experts Ipsos MORI to develop the refreshed guide which replaces its earlier guidance published in 2013. The updated version takes into account feedback the Regulator gathered from landlords through its routine regulatory work and views gathered through direct consultation with landlord representative bodies.

Christine Macleod, director of governance and performance, said: “We require landlords to survey their tenants and report to us their tenant satisfaction rates. This is an important indicator of the landlord’s performance. We need to be sure that landlords ask the same questions in the same way so we publish this survey guide to ensure consistency.

“In commissioning this refresh of the survey guide we were keen to reflect the experiences of landlords. So we asked Ipsos MORI to speak with a range of external stakeholders to help identify what needed to be changed in the guide to make it clearer for landlords while maintaining the robustness of the survey data that they gather.”

The Regulator uses results of landlords’ surveys gathered through landlords’ Annual Returns on the Scottish Social Housing Charter to inform its regulatory activity and engagement.

The Regulator’s refreshed guide ‘Conducting surveys of tenants and service users: A Guide’ along with a version which shows all of the changes are available online.