Decision details

Cabinet was informed that in recent years the Housing Ombudsman and the Regulator for Social Housing had been encouraging tenants and leaseholders to provide feedback and hold their landlords to account by raising complaints. The report to the Governance, Audit and Standards Committee in November 2024 showed that the Housing service received 71 Stage 1 complaints between 1 July and 30 September 2024 (Q2) of which 15 of these complaints were escalated to Stage 2.

Complaints are currently responded to by the Housing Operations Manager, the Income and Housing Manager, the Housing Services and Strategy Manager or the Repairs Customer Services Manager, depending on the nature of the complaint. Of the 71 complaints received in the quarter, 26 were responded to by the Housing Operations Manager and 24 were responded to by the Repairs Customer Services Manager.

The Housing Service has been working to improve the quality of the investigations into complaints and the detail provided in the responses with an aim to reduce the complaints that are escalated to Stage 2 and onto the Housing Ombudsman. The work also ensures that the root cause of the complaint is correctly identified and appropriate action can be taken to learn from the complaint.

RESOLVED that a new Housing Complaints Officer, at Grade 6 be approved, with the estimated cost of £39,700 per annum (including oncosts) to be funded from Housing Revenue Account working balances.

Reason

This will allow the Housing Service to improve the quality of the investigations into complaints and the detail provided in the responses with an aim to reduce the complaints that are escalated to Stage 2 and onto the Housing Ombudsman.