Our Performance
This report looks back at how we did over the past year and what we’ve been doing to make our services better for you.
We want to keep improving, so if you’ve got any comments or suggestions, please drop us an email at communications@sanctuary.co.uk.
Your Home
| Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenants satisfied with our overall service | 83.9% | 70.6% | +13.3% |
| Tenants satisfied with the quality of their home | 86.3% | 76.3% | +10.0% |
We now manage more than 9,000 homes across the Northeast and Central Belt of Scotland. Most of you told us you’re happy with both your home and the service we provide.
During 2024/25, we handed over another 307 affordable, energy-efficient homes in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Linwood, Paisley, Gartcosh and South Queensferry. We also started work on new homes, including 64 in Greenock – the very first built by our own construction team. We’re proud to keep supporting the Scottish Government’s Housing to 2040 vision, working closely with local councils to deliver more quality homes.
| Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard at the end of the reporting year | 87.6% | 83.8% | +3.8% |
We invested more than £3.2 million in upgrades during 2024/25. This meant hundreds of you received:
New boilers, kitchens, bathrooms, windows or doors
Fresh paintwork and gutter cleaning
New roofs where they were needed
Thanks to this work, nearly 88% of our homes now meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard – up almost 4% on last year.
These improvements also help prevent issues like damp and mould. We also made safe 100 homes in Cumbernauld that had Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenants who feel their rent is good value for money | 72.8% | 65.4% | +7.4% |
| Rent increase | 4.1% | 5.8% | -1.7% |
| Rent collected from tenants as a % of total rent due | 100.4%* | 100.7%* | -0.3% |
*we were able to collect more than 100% of rent due because the total include money owed from the year before.
We know the cost of living is tough right now, so we’re doing our best to keep rents affordable. In 2024/25:
More than 7 in 10 residents (73%) said their rent was good value for money – that’s up on last year.
Our rent increase was 4.1%, lower than the 5.8% rise in 2023/24.
We collected 100.4% of rent due (this includes rent owed from previous years).
We work hard to keep costs down wherever we can, while making sure there’s enough money to maintain and improve your homes.
Your Services
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenants who feel we are good at keeping them informed about our services and decisions | 90.7% | 79.3% | +11.4% |
Good communication matters. This year, more than 9 in 10 residents (91%) said we keep you well informed about our services and decisions – that’s a big jump from last year.
Our Housing Officers spend most of their time out in the communities they look after. This means they can give you more hands-on support, whether that’s checking your home suits your needs or tackling issues like antisocial behaviour. We’ve also encouraged staff to complete customer service training so they can better understand the impact of their decisions on residents.
We’re also making more use of customer surgeries and drop-in events, giving you more chances to talk to us face-to-face.
We’ve rolled out new technology to make the repairs process easier. You’ll now get text or email updates on your repair – including a message to let you know when our team is on the way. This should make things more convenient and give you peace of mind.
Our Board of Management meets regularly to check how we’re doing and to make sure residents’ needs come first. We publish the reports and minutes of every meeting on our website so you can see exactly what’s being discussed and decided.
We also send a regular email newsletter to residents (if we have your email address). It includes important updates as well as helpful tips for managing your home. If you’d like to receive it, please share your email address with us and we’ll add you to the list. Don’t worry – important tenancy information will still come by post unless you ask us otherwise.
We’re also working hard to make our letters and written updates easier to understand, so they’re clear, simple and useful to you.
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average length of time to complete emergency repairs (hours) | 6.6 | 9.6 | -3.0 |
| Average length of time to complete non-emergency repairs (days) | 20.2 | 18.2 | +2.0 |
Keeping you safe is our top priority, which is why emergencies are dealt with first. We fixed emergencies in an average of 6.6 hours – three hours faster than last year. Non-emergency repairs took longer – an average of 20.2 days, two days slower than the year before.
We aim to carry out 100% of safety checks on time but sometimes can’t get into people’s homes. Please help us by letting our team in when we visit you.
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reactive repairs completed right first time | 61.1% | 73.6% | -12.5% |
| Tenants who have had repairs or maintenance carried out satisfied with our repairs and maintenance service | 78.1% | 83.3% | -5.2% |
We know it’s frustrating when a repair takes more than one visit. In 2024/25:
- 61% of repairs were completed right first time (a drop on last year)
- 78% of residents were happy with their repair overall
We’re working to improve this by giving repair teams access to your home’s repair history before they visit. This means they can plan better and, we hope, fix things in one go more often.
We’ve also increased our repairs budget by 33% compared to 2023/24, which should mean faster, better repairs in the year ahead.
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average time to re-let properties (days) | 33.1 | 31.6 | +1.5 |
| Rent due lost through properties being empty | 0.6% | 0.8% | -0.2% |
| Gross rent arrears (all tenants) at 31 March as a % of rent due for the reporting year | 5.8 | 6.0 | -0.2 |
It took us slightly longer to re-let empty homes (33.1 days on average, compared to 31.6 last year). However, we reduced the amount of rent lost because homes were empty – down to 0.6%. Gross rent arrears also dropped a little to 5.8%.
Your Community
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antisocial behaviour cases resolved | 97.6% | 98.3% | -0.7% | |
| Tenants satisfied with our management of their neighbourhood | 89.5% | 75.0% | +14.5% | |
Almost 9 in 10 residents (90%) told us they’re happy with how we look after their neighbourhood – a big rise compared to last year.
We joined more than 30 community events where residents could talk to us about home improvements, repairs and other local issues. Our Housing Officers also led estate walkabouts, giving you the chance to point out problems in real time so we could fix them quickly.
Our Sustainable Communities and Housing teams are based in the areas they support. Together, they help residents who might be struggling with:
The risk of eviction
Rent arrears
Paying bills
In 2024/25, we:
- Secured over 1,000 energy vouchers worth more than £51,000 for residents struggling with fuel bills (thanks to the Fuel Bank Foundation).
- Helped around 270 of our most vulnerable residents keep their homes, while linking them with local support groups to reduce isolation and loneliness.
- Brought in £100,000 of partner investment for community projects across Scotland.
- Secured an extra £98,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to continue a project in Priesthill, Glasgow, supporting people facing trauma, poverty and mental health challenges.
- Delivered National Customer Support Offer awards to 188 residents, worth more than £34,000, helping with essentials like carpets and curtains.
Our Welfare Rights Officers also made sure residents got the benefits they’re entitled to. This added up to more than £2.1 million in welfare benefits for 531 residents in 2024/25.
We successfully resolved 97.6% of antisocial behaviour cases. Although that’s slightly less than last year, we’re taking action to improve further.
Your Voice
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenants satisfied with the opportunities given to participate in our decision-making processes | 90.3% | 89.8% | +0.5% |
| Stage 1 complaints responded to in full | 97.1% | 98.7% | -1.6% |
In summer 2024, we asked 1,000 residents to take part in our three-yearly satisfaction survey. This gives us a good picture of what’s working well and where we need to improve.
We’re pleased that overall satisfaction rose to 83.9%, up from 70.6% in the last survey. But we know these figures are just a snapshot in time. We want to keep working with you to make things better.
Your feedback shapes the way we work. Our main resident groups are:
- National Resident Review Panel – this group helps us improve lots of services, including making sure this report is easy to read.
- Resident Advisory Panel (RAP) – this panel works closely with our Group Board and senior leaders to share residents’ views on future plans.
- Communities of Interest – groups of residents who focus on a single topic, giving us detailed feedback from a customer perspective.
You can find more information about how to get involved on our website.
We don’t just listen every three years – we ask for your views regularly. After a repair, a new tenancy or other services, we’ll often send you a short survey. This real-time feedback means we can quickly change how we work and improve your experience.
Your Complaints About Our Service
Indicator | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | Year-on-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Stage 1 complaints received | 788 | 667 | +121 |
| Number of Stage 1 complaints carried forward | 7 | 40 | -33 |
| Stage 1 complaints responded to in full | 97.1% | 98.7% | -1.6% |
| Number of Stage 2 complaints received | 118 | 104 | +14 |
| Number of Stage 2 complaints carried forward | 18 | 12 | +6 |
| Stage 2 complaints responded to in full | 91.9% | 87.9% | +4.0% |
| Average time in working days for a full response at Stage 1 | 6.3 | 9.3 | -3.0 |
| Average time in working days for a full response at Stage 2 | 39.0 | 27.2 | +11.8 |
Most of you are happy with your home and our service, but we know we don’t always get it right. When things go wrong, your complaints help us learn and improve.
We handle all complaints in line with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s code, which has two stages:
Stage 1 – Frontline resolution
Quick fixes where possible
Stage 2 – Investigation
(for more complex issues)
We’ve made a number of changes based on what residents told us:
- We now contact every customer at the start of the complaint process to understand your concerns and explain what will happen next.
- We provide regular updates so you know where things stand.
- We carry out root cause analysis to spot common problems and fix them.
- We’ve trialled new aftercare teams, offering local follow-up support once your complaint is closed.
- Over 20 residents are now trained “customer quality checkers”, helping us make sure our responses are fair, clear and useful.
- A new Quality Assurance of Complaints Panel gives residents even more say in how we handle complaints.
- We’ve introduced new technology to give colleagues a clearer picture of your situation, helping us get it right first time.
- We also had our complaints process independently audited last year, and we’ve now completed all the recommended improvements.
For more details about how we handle complaints, please visit our dedicated Complaints page on the website.