Complaints – how are we doing?

We aim to provide a great service, however, we know that sometimes things can go wrong. When this happens, we always do our best to put things right. We’ve been making changes to improve our complaints service, having listened to your feedback. 

We’re working to respond more quickly to your complaints and to communicate better with you with each step of the way. Here you can find out how we’re doing with managing and resolving your complaints. We’ll share updates with you every 3 months. For more about our complaints and resolution service, including how to make a complaint, visit our dedicated help page. 

 

How many complaints did we receive?

Between January and March 2025, we received 2,695 complaints.

Most of these complaints were related to our repairs and housing services. Key areas of concern were the length of time taken to resolve problems and poor communication with customers.

We also received complaints about the reliability of our lifts, service charge costs, and cleaning and ground maintenance services.  

How quickly did we respond to your complaints?

We aim to respond to 100% of Stage 1* complaints within 10 working days and Stage 2* complaints within 20 working days. These timescales are set by the Housing Ombudsman Service.  

In the last quarter, our performance was:  

Whilst we are not yet responding to all complaints within the required timescales, our performance has been improving.  

We've expanded our Complaints and Resolution Team

To speed up our response times, we’re investing in 13 new roles to join our Complaints and Resolution Team.

They are:    

Eight new Stage 1 Case Workers 

  • This includes four new repair specialists, who will bring valuable expertise from our Repairs Team to better manage technical queries.  

Four new Stage 2 Case Workers and a Team Manager   

  • These roles will increase our capacity to gather evidence and work with Heads of Service to investigate customer complaints. This will ensure we’re providing a fair outcome in line with government regulations.  

*What are Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints?

Our complaints process has two stages. Stage 1 is when your first make a complaint with us. If you’re not happy with our response to you at this first stage, you can ask for your complaint to be progressed to Stage 2. This means it will be re-investigated by a senior manager. 

You said, we did

We’re committed to listening and learning from your feedback. Take a look below to find out what actions we’ve been taking to improve our service for you. 

  • You wanted more opportunities to get involved and give feedback 

  • We’re taking too long to resolve your complaint 

  • Lifts are out of action for long periods of time, when repairs are needed 

  • You wanted clearer information about the costs you pay through your service charges

  • Repairs are taking too long to be completed  

  • A new customer-led panel has been created to provide feedback, influence decisions, and review performance. This is part of our wider Customer Engagement Programme, which provides a range of opportunities to give feedback on specific issues 

  • Our first Customer Group Board Member, Coretta Scott, was appointed in February to ensure the customer voice is at the heart of our decisions

  • We’ve launched a 12-month pilot to grow our Complaints and Resolution Team.  By boosting capacity with 13 new team members, we aim to improve how we manage complaints and give you a better experience

  • Two new lift contractors have been appointed to speed up lift repairs and improve reliability. They will also assess all passenger lifts to identify and address reliability issues

  • We provided more detailed service charge information specific to each building and explained changes to building insurance costs. Additionally, for the first time, leaseholders and shared owners will receive an insurance policy summary that explains the cost of their home’s insurance

  • We’re developing new technology to manage all repair requests on one system, making the process faster and more efficient