Our Annual Report 2025
Explore our performance, achievements and progress over the past year.
Annual Report for customers 2025
Performance
We’re committed to being open and transparent about our performance so in this report you’ll find key performance highlights, what we’ve improved and what we’re working on to make things better for you and your community.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs)
The TSMs are used by the Regulator of Social Housing in England to assess how well landlords are doing in providing good quality homes and services. Below are samples of our latest results.
Social Tenants Access to Information Scheme (STAIRS)
The UK Government will be introducing new legislation in 2026, STAIRS, that will enable you to access information related to the management of your home.
We understand you may want to know more about how we manage the different aspects of your tenancy so you can already request information under STAIRS ahead of the legislation change.
How we spend your rent
Void repairs - 7p
Central office costs - 8p
Letting homes & tackling anti-social behaviour - 7p
Major repairs - 31p
Routine maintenance - 21p
Salaries - 26p
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2024/2025
Housing management - £1,164
Routine repairs - £1,734
Major repairs - £2,241
Other - £428
Total - £5,567
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£115.59 - up 7.7% compared to 2024
*excludes Affordable Rent and Intermediate Rent.
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67.4% of you think your rent provides value for money compared to 70.2% in 2024 (down 2.8%)
52% of you think service charges are value for money compared to 53.3% in 2024 (down 1.3%)
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Median time taken to relet our empty properties - 49 calendar days
Number of homes empty at year end - 2.6%
Rent arrears as a percentage of total rent due at year end - 5.3%
Appointments made and kept (Riverside only) - 83%
First time fix for repairs - 78.4%
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How every £1 of rent is spent
Void repairs - 7p
Central office costs - 8p
Letting homes & tackling anti-social behaviour - 7p
Major repairs - 31p
Routine maintenance - 21p
Salaries - 26p
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Average cost of maintaining your home
2024/2025
Housing management - £1,164
Routine repairs - £1,734
Major repairs - £2,241
Other - £428
Total - £5,567
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Average general needs weekly net rent*
£115.59 - up 7.7% compared to 2024
*excludes Affordable Rent and Intermediate Rent.
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Value for money
67.4% of you think your rent provides value for money compared to 70.2% in 2024 (down 2.8%)
52% of you think service charges are value for money compared to 53.3% in 2024 (down 1.3%)
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Satisfaction and performance
Median time taken to relet our empty properties - 49 calendar days
Number of homes empty at year end - 2.6%
Rent arrears as a percentage of total rent due at year end - 5.3%
Appointments made and kept (Riverside only) - 83%
First time fix for repairs - 78.4%
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Complaints
Complaints give us an opportunity to understand how you feel about our services so we can put things right. While we have seen a significant reduction in volume compared to the previous year, repairs remains our number one complaint type.
Top complaint types
Repairs - 62%
Tenancy Management - 19%
Building Safety - 14%
Other - 5%
8124 complaints received this year
26% decrease in complaints received
1.9% increase in complaints handling satisfaction
Priorities for improvement
Operational – complaints are sometimes closed prior to being fully resolved leading customers to feel they have not been listened to or treated with sufficient respect.
Complaint handling – We’ve upgraded our systems and enhanced colleague training to help us resolve complaints more effectively and deliver better outcomes. We’re also exploring new ways to keep you updated in real time, such as by text or email.
Customer feedback – Your feedback has been and will continue to be invaluable to us. We will continue to engage with you through interviews and surveys to gain further insight on how to further improve.
Our commitment to your home and services
We’re committed to improving the quality and efficiency of houses and our services, so you feel safe and secure in your home. Some of the key initiatives currently underway are detailed below.
Developing the New Homes Strategy
We’re shaping a long-term strategy that will set out how we will invest in homes to improve the quality of them. This includes upgrading existing properties, ensuring they meet modern standards, and planning for future developments that reflect your needs and the needs of your community. Our goal is to create safe, comfortable and sustainable homes for all our customers.
Property systems integration project
To improve the management of repairs in our South and London regions, we’re integrating our property systems. This will allow for the repairs process to be streamlined, making it easier to report and track repairs. This will mean better efficiency for both us and you, ultimately resulting in improved delivery of the service from start to finish.
Preparing for the introduction of Awaab's Law
In anticipation of Awaab’s Law coming into effect from 27 October 2025, we’re taking proactive steps by updating our repair triage processes, inspection standards and governance reporting. This is to ensure that significant and emergency hazards are identified and addressed quickly and effectively. Named after Awaab Ishak, who tragically died due to prolonged mould exposure, the law is part of the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023. We’ll ensure that you’re well informed throughout, so that you can be reassured that your home remains safe.
Strengthening compliance with the Safety & Quality Standard
We’re continuing to implement and reinforce actions that ensure full compliance with the Safety & Quality Standard. This includes aligning with relevant codes of practice and improving internal processes to maintain high standards of safety, quality, and accountability across all our properties.
We are HouseProud
Over the last 12 months we have continued to work to the guidance of Stonewall Housing to help direct our efforts to ensure Riverside is working towards becoming a truly LGBTQ+ inclusive service provider. This has involved us working with interested customers to help us to shape our services, and also our colleagues, as well as better communicating our commitments.
Find out more on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion page.
Building safety
We’re making improvements based on your feedback. We’ve been listening to what you’ve told us about the services that matter the most to you, and we recognise that we have some work to do so wanted to share our plans with you.
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You told us that repairs take too long. We want you to feel safe and secure in your home, and how a repair is dealt with is integral to that. To improve the time it takes for a repair to be resolved, we’re going to:
- Empower our colleagues with better information so they can help you quickly and easily
- Improve communications between our teams and the contractors that we use
- Analyse repeat repairs to get to the root cause
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You told us that you weren’t happy with the gardening and cleaning services. It’s important to us that you feel pride in your home and surroundings, so we’re putting in steps to improve the service from contractors.
- Simplify contracts so they are clear and align with service needs
- Communicate to you the services you can expect in a clear and concise way
- Continue to seek your feedback via regular surveys, and update you with the results
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Your home and shared spaces
We’re making improvements based on your feedback. We’ve been listening to what you’ve told us about the services that matter the most to you, and we recognise that we have some work to do so wanted to share our plans with you.
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Repairs
You told us that repairs take too long. We want you to feel safe and secure in your home, and how a repair is dealt with is integral to that. To improve the time it takes for a repair to be resolved, we’re going to:
- Empower our colleagues with better information so they can help you quickly and easily
- Improve communications between our teams and the contractors that we use
- Analyse repeat repairs to get to the root cause
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Communal areas services
You told us that you weren’t happy with the gardening and cleaning services. It’s important to us that you feel pride in your home and surroundings, so we’re putting in steps to improve the service from contractors.
- Simplify contracts so they are clear and align with service needs
- Communicate to you the services you can expect in a clear and concise way
- Continue to seek your feedback via regular surveys, and update you with the results
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Improving your neighbourhoods
We know that living in a safe and welcoming neighbourhood is important to you, and that anti-social behaviour issues can have a real impact on your quality of life.
That’s why we’ve been working hard to make your neighbourhoods safer and improve how we manage concerns you raise with us.
We’re proud of the work that’s been done so far, but know we have more to do, and are excited for the changes to come that will mean your neighbourhoods are safer and stronger.
What’s been done so far?
What’s next?
Customer engagement framework
We’re designing a bold new framework that gives you real power in shaping the services you receive from us, and we want you to be part of it. Whether you want to simply stay informed or help make big decisions, there’s a role for everyone.
Here are a few words from Paula Simpson, part of Tenants and Residents Influence Partnership (TRIP) on why you should get involved:
“I’ve been involved with Riverside for five years and I’ve seen the impact we, as customers can have. Getting involved was a last resort when I felt that Riverside was missing the point – I could either accept my living conditions or I could help Riverside identify where they were failing.
I have seen how our voices can make considerable changes and have a real influence on the decisions that directly affect us.
We have restructured customer involvement and designed the new framework, allowing Riverside to identify the ways its customers can contribute to how things are done. Every step is important, and you can choose how much or how little you want to say!
We all just want a nice, warm, safe home to live in and we have the power through our voice, to make sure this is delivered. Our voices are valuable so let’s use them to shape the future.”
Seven steps to success
What next?
We’ll start recruiting in November 2025, with the full framework launching in spring 2026.
For more information on how you can have a real influence on our services, and what changes we have already made as a result of your feedback, visit our Get Involved page.
Community Fund
Our Community Fund supports projects and activities helping you to thrive in your homes and improving the quality of life for your community.
Residents and Riverside Team get to work
A group of Riverside residents, colleagues and local councillors recently came together to transform an unadopted alleyway on Smithdown Lane, Liverpool.
After the alleyway became an eyesore, overgrown and affected by fly-tipping, a local resident reached out to their local councillor for help. Working together with the area’s Housing Officer, they secured funding from our Community Fund to clear the space and put it to better use.
Local residents now have exciting plans to make the alleyway into a peaceful green haven, filled with plants, flowers, and maybe even some fruit trees. Here’s hoping for plentiful harvests in the future!
Your voice, our future
As we begin to shape our corporate strategy for the next five years, we’re asking for your input by sharing your views with us.
Our corporate strategy will set out our direction for the years ahead, outlining our priorities and help keep us focused on how to achieve our ultimate goal of making things better for you and our communities.
We have agreed that we will have three pillars that we will focus on for our next corporate strategy, which are homes, customers and people, and we want to hear what you think our key priorities should be for each area.