Housemark’s latest monthly Pulse survey, which measures performance data for August 2025, shows that the median level of ‘true’ current tenant arrears fell by 1.4% between July and August to 2.73%. This marks an almost 7% improvement compared with the same time last year. The findings suggest that sustained focus on early intervention and effective income management is paying off. 

Former tenant arrears also appear to be easing as many landlords accelerate the write-off of unrecoverable debt to strengthen long-term financial planning.

Housemark’s analysis shows that landlords are continuing to balance inflationary and operational pressures through proactive tenant support. With CPI inflation at 3.8% indicating a rise in living costs, we show that a greater proportion of tenants are on managed payments to landlords and alternative payment arrangements for Universal Credit households to help sustain tenancies and safeguard income.

Repairs performance remained steady through August despite a seasonal dip in activity. Landlords completed a median of 230 responsive repairs per 1,000 homes, 15.9% fewer than July but with stronger execution: 88% were completed within target, 3.6% higher year-on-year. Transactional satisfaction rose to 90%, up 2.6% on the same period last year, reflecting improvements in planning and capacity management.

Structural change is reshaping the sector, bringing both challenges and opportunities. The number of social landlords across England and Scotland has fallen from 512 to 491 since 2020/21, while the average landlord size has grown from 9,576 to 12,604 homes. These mergers and consolidations can create conditions for service improvements such as smaller housing officer patch sizes, shorter queuing times and stronger arrears management, but also require careful planning to manage the impact of change.

Staff turnover remains low at a median of 0.8% per month, though sickness absence stood at 3.7% of working days, with previous merger data showing this can rise during integration periods.

Jonathan Cox, chief data officer at Housemark, said: “This month’s Pulse data shows a sector making steady progress on multiple fronts. Arrears improvement against an inflationary backdrop reflects strong income management and proactive tenant support, both vital for financial stability.

“We are also seeing encouraging signs that mergers and structural change are beginning to deliver operational improvements. At the same time, landlords managing leaner repairs workloads are achieving the best results for customers. These trends underline the sector’s focus on using data and insight to make smarter decisions and sustain service quality through uncertain times.”

Other key findings in this month’s Pulse Report include:

• Complaints volumes fell by 17% between July and August, with 96.9% resolved within target times
• Customer satisfaction with landlord services (perception surveys) stood at 75.8%
• The proportion of homes vacant and available to let increased marginally to 0.47%
• Average re-let times rose to 43.6 days

Housemark’s Monthly Pulse is based on real-time data from 135 social landlords across the UK, covering key metrics including arrears, voids, repairs, complaints and staffing.