We know we don’t always get things right, or meet your expectations. When something goes wrong, we are committed to finding out why and resolving it as quickly as possible. We want to ensure that complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly.
We have produced a full report reviewing our performance and learnings in 2024/25.
Board Response to the Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report 2024/25
As the Member Responsible for Complaints, I fully acknowledge the critical importance of delivering a high-quality, fair, and responsive complaints service. Over the past year, we have identified areas where our performance has not consistently met the standards our residents rightly expect. In response, we launched a targeted improvement programme aimed at strengthening our complaints handling, improving outcomes, and embedding a culture of continuous learning across the organisation.
This programme has already delivered several tangible improvements, including clearer accountability at each stage of the complaints process, enhanced quality of responses, and a reduction in escalated cases. We have also strengthened our internal monitoring and reporting frameworks to ensure greater oversight, consistency, and transparency.
As a result of these improvements, and as a reflection of our commitment to meaningful change, the Housing Ombudsman has concluded its investigation into our complaints handling, which commenced late last year. The Ombudsman acknowledged that we have identified key areas for improvement and are actively addressing them. While the investigation has now closed, we remain firmly committed to embedding long-term, sustainable improvements in how we manage and learn from complaints.
We continue to engage constructively with the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS), using their feedback and recommendations to inform our ongoing work. Their insight has been instrumental in helping us identify systemic issues and implement effective, lasting solutions.
Learning from complaints remains central to our approach. We are using complaint data to identify trends, inform service improvements, and share learning across teams. Crucially, we are committed to closing the feedback loop by reporting back to residents on the changes we have made as a result of their experiences, helping to build trust and accountability.
While we are encouraged by the progress made, we recognise that there is more to do. We remain focused on driving further improvements, ensuring that every complaint is treated as an opportunity to learn, improve, and deliver better services for our residents.
Andy McWilliams
Vice Chair of the Board, Chair of Customer Experience Committee
You can read our Complaints policy in full here, and our latest self-assessment against the Complaint Handling Code here.