What do 30,000 tweets tell us about what tenants really think?

We analysed social media conversations around rent and service charge announcements from 14 UK housing associations — and found patterns that should concern (and inform) every housing leader.

Housing associations are under mounting pressure to improve tenant satisfaction while grappling with inflation and cost-of-living challenges. Here's what the data reveals about where that pressure is coming from — and what you can do about it.

Understanding the true drivers of tenant complaints

Traditional manual analysis of tenant feedback often misses crucial patterns and emerging issues. AI-powered analysis can:

• Process thousands of comments across surveys, social media, and complaints channels
• Identify underlying causes of dissatisfaction before they escalate
• Track sentiment trends across different aspects of service delivery
• Highlight correlations between different types of complaints

The biggest tenant complaint: The service charge connection

It probably won’t shock you to hear that what came out of the Viewpoint Rent and Service Charge Consultation Outcomes Report at the end of February was not popular with tenants.  

Following announcements of rental increases by a minimum of 2.9% and a jump in services by at least 2% (effective from April), we noticed a spike in volume and a drop in sentiment as tenants voiced their frustration.

You could also see that trend regionally - the regions with the highest rate of conversation about service charges  (The South East, South West and North West) also had the lowest overall sentiment across all posts. 

So far, so predictable. But there was a really interesting corollary to the reaction to the service charge increase: it led to an increase in other complaints. We saw a direct correlation between the increase in discussions on service charge, and complaints about other issues - including fire safety, hot water, repairs and hygiene. The data suggests an increase in expectation on a Housing Association when the charge goes up.

This insight enables housing providers to:

• Prepare support resources ahead of planned changes
• Address potential issues proactively
• Target communications more effectively
• Allocate resources where they're needed most

The importance of customer communication

These situations can be very difficult, with no easy way to make it better. But there was one clear way to make it worse - not communicating changes with residents.

Data shows that lack of communication dramatically impacts complaint volumes. When residents feel uninformed about changes:

• Negative sentiment increases by up to 35% when residents don’t feel they’re being communicated to effectively
• The likelihood of escalation rises significantly
• Trust in the housing provider decreases
• The risk of legal action increases

This reinforces the need for better communication and support during periods of change for tenants - particularly in difficult moments. Transparency should be encouraged in advance of when prices increase to inform and justify the reasons why that’s the case. These efforts can help to alleviate and minimise tenant anxiety.

Did anything positive come out of the social media customer feedback?

Is there any positive news at all for Housing Associations? While costs, charges and services dominated the posts of residents, there was also recognition that Housing Associations positive elements, especially with regard to:

• Working with young people, either through schools or by connecting them with elderly residents
• Community building initiatives
• New developments, especially with Shared Ownership elements

Sure, Community initiatives are great but it’s not like they actually help with complaints about charges, right? Well, amazingly, we did see an inverse correlation between the amount of community outreach in a region, and complaints about service charges. There were outliers, especially in London, where there was an above average proportion of both service charge and community discussion. But overall, the more likely an association was to be seen to be working with the community, the less likely they were to receive complaints about cost of living.

5 things housing providers can do to reduce financial complaints

There’s no two ways about it - increases in charges will increase complaints. But we have seen several ways in which Housing Associations are reducing the complaints that they get, and improving tenants’ overall opinion of them.

1. Ensure you understand how your tenants feel

The emails, messages, posts and complaints from tenants can often be overwhelming, especially when something big like the charge increase happens. But you can now access tools that can codify, categorise and collate the issues, allowing you to prioritise the most important and understand how things are changing.

2. Communicate changes

The most important piece of advice. Get ahead of changes and make sure tenants are informed. You'll find they're pretty understanding.

3. Prepare for an increase in other complaints

Any raise in charges will also raise other issues. It’s a great time to bring on extra support measures, even for a short period.

4. Reach out into the community

Talk to Councillors, Community Groups, Schools. Being seen to be a part of the community will help when you need to ask something of them

5. Invest in shared ownership

Much of the positive press about Housing Associations is coming from this initiative.

How AI feedback analysis prevents tenant complaints

Here's how housing providers can leverage AI-powered feedback analysis to reduce complaints:

• Monitor sentiment trends across all feedback channels
• Identify emerging issues before they become widespread
• Track the effectiveness of interventions and communications

• Understand which issues most impact tenant satisfaction
• Allocate resources based on data-driven insights
• Develop proactive communication strategies

• Track complaint patterns over time
• Measure the impact of service improvements
• Benchmark performance against sector standards

• Identify successful initiatives
• Understand what matters most to different tenant groups
• Track the impact of engagement activities on satisfaction

The Role of AI in Modern Housing Management

Today's housing providers need to process more feedback from more channels than ever before. AI-powered analysis helps by:

• Aggregating feedback from multiple sources
• Providing consistent, unbiased analysis
• Delivering actionable insights quickly
• Enabling data-driven decision making

Want To Understand What Your Tenants Are Really Saying?

We can run this same analysis on your complaints, surveys, and social mentions. See patterns your team might be missing.