To present to Cabinet the Annual Housing Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report for scrutiny and challenge, which includes a self-assessment carried out against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code for 2024/25 prior to publication and submission.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and in compliance with Cabinet’s scrutiny and oversight requirements, formally receives and notes the Council’s Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, which includes the Annual Self-Assessment against the Code, as set out in Appendices A and B to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.3);

(b)    formally approves its response, as submitted by the Leader of the Council at this meeting and recorded above, to the Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report, for publication; and

(c)     authorises Officers to publish both the Service Improvement Report and the Cabinet’s response thereto on the Council’s website within the section relating to complaints and to submit the self-assessment to the Housing Ombudsman by no later than 30 September 2025.

Cabinet considered a report of the Housing and Planning Portfolio Holder (A.3) which presented to it the Annual Housing Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report for scrutiny and challenge, which included a self-assessment carried out against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code for 2024/25 prior to its publication and submission.

Members were reminded that, in July 2020, the Housing Ombudsman had published a new Complaint Handling Code (“the Code”) that provided a framework for high-quality complaint handling and greater consistency across landlord’s complaint procedures.  Its aim was to enable landlords to resolve complaints raised by their residents quickly and to use the learning from complaints to drive service improvements. That Code had been subsequently revised in 2022 to make it explicit about what was mandatory and where it was appropriate for landlords to use their discretion to achieve best practice in complaint handling.

Cabinet recalled that, prior to the implementation of those revisions, complaints against the Council, as a landlord, had been dealt with under the Council’s Corporate Complaints Policy.  However, the revision of the Code and self-assessment at the time had resulted in a stand-alone policy being developed for handling complaints received regarding the Council in its capacity as a landlord to ensure that it met all of the requirements of the Code.

Following the implementation of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code had become statutory on 1 April 2024. This had been accompanied by a further revision of the Code and the Council’s Housing Complaints Policy had been reviewed and amended in April 2024 to take account of those changes.

It was reported that the Complaint Handling Code 2024 required landlords to produce an annual complaints performance and service improvement report for scrutiny and challenge and that this information should be presented to the landlord’s governing body. As part of this, landlords were required to look beyond the circumstances of individual complaints and consider whether any service improvements could be made as a result of learning from complaints and those were outlined in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.3).

The annual complaints performance and service improvement report also included a self-assessment against the Code and that was set out in Appendix B to that report (A.3).

Cabinet was aware that the Complaint Handling Code required one member of the governing body to have lead responsibility for housing complaints.  The role was responsible for ensuring the governing body received regular information on complaints that provided insight and learning on the landlord’s complaint handing performance.  To that end, in May 2024, Cabinet had endorsed the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning performing the role of the Member Responsible for Complaints for the purposes of the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.

Members recalled that the Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC) was responsible for ensuring that the self-assessment was scrutinised and challenged and for ensuring that complaint handling drove service improvement for residents and learning and business improvement for the organisation. This accorded with the report to Cabinet being in the name of the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning. This formed part of their role in embedding a positive complaint handling culture across housing services. 

Cabinet was informed that both the self-assessment and the performance report had been presented to the MRC and, since April 2024, the MRC had had an ongoing monitoring role chairing the Council’s Housing Board with complaints information being presented and reviewed by the MRC on a quarterly basis. This ensured that data was scrutinised and challenged and provided an assurance that the service was handling complaints effectively and using the insights gained to drive service improvement.

Members were advised that the report submitted to the Housing Ombudsman service in 2024 had been made in time and had been acknowledged by the Ombudsman as having been received. No queries had been received in respect of the information submitted.

Cabinet was reminded that, as the governing body, it was required to provide scrutiny and challenge to the Annual Report and the self-assessment and to provide a response prior to its publication and submission to the Housing Ombudsman by the deadline of 30 September 2025.

Members were aware that the purpose of publishing the governing body’s response to the self-assessment was to provide an assurance that the self-assessment was a true reflection of the landlord’s complaint handling.  The response should set out how the MRC had scrutinised and challenged the self-assessment and how any risks identified as part of the review had been addressed. 

Cabinet further recalled that, in 2023, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman services had consulted on a single complaints code across both of their areas of responsibilities.  In recognition of the different legal powers the organisations held, the conclusion reached was to produce instead two closely aligned Codes for complaint handling. 

In view of this, the Council was looking to harmonise the Corporate and Housing Complaints procedures to deliver the expectations of the closely aligned Ombudsman Codes and it was anticipated that a revised combined complaints policy would be adopted in July 2025.

Members were informed that the Council’s housing service had received a greater number of complaints in 2024/25 than in 2023/24. Although the number of complaints had increased, the speed of response to those complaints, as measured against the published response timescales, had improved. The MRC had been a key driver behind that improvement in performance, with complaint handling performance discussed at monthly meetings with senior officers from the housing service.

The Housing and Planning Portfolio Holder made the following statement:-

“Leader, I introduce to Cabinet the Annual Housing Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, which as Cabinet is well aware, is required under the Housing Ombudsman’s regime.

The Complaint Handling Code 2024 requires landlords to produce an annual complaints performance and service improvement report for scrutiny and challenge and this information should be presented to the landlord’s governing body.

The Complaint Handling Code requires one member of the governing body to have lead responsibility for housing complaints. The role is responsible for ensuring the governing body receives regular information on complaints that provides insight and learning on the landlords complaint handing performance. You will recall, Leader, that at our Cabinet meeting in May 2024, I was endorsed, by Cabinet, to perform the role of Member Responsible for Complaints for the purposes of the Code.

In that respect I am responsible for ensuring that the Self-Assessment (Appendix A to this report) is scrutinised and challenged and for ensuring that complaint handling drives improvement. Since April 2024 I have also undertaken an ongoing monitoring role, and Chair the internal Housing Improvement Board, and have information regarding complaints, provided to me on a quarterly basis.

As can be seen from the report, in the period from April 2024 to March 2025, there were a total of 90 complaints, and of those Stage 1 complaints were 78, and at Stage 2, 12.

You will see within Appendix B to this report, the Housing Complaints Report, from page 189 onwards, the numbers of complaints by month, service area, and outcomes.

I am also pleased to bring to Cabinet’s attention the response times to complaints, with 93.6% of Stage 1 complaints being responded to within the 10 working days set within the Code, and 91.7% of Stage 2 complaints being responded to within the 20 working days set within the Code. At the top of Page 198 of the Agenda, Cabinet will see the comparison against last year’s figures, where there has been a significant increase in performance, which is good to see.

On Tuesday of this week, the Complaints report was provided to the Tenants Panel, as part of their scrutiny, and for comment. They agreed that there had been improvement, especially around the figures I have just mentioned. They have also agreed to set up various sub-committees to look deeper into various issues, one of those to include enquiries into complaints made, and I look forward to their findings in due course.

Finally, Leader, I would also like to inform Cabinet that the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman have recently consulted on having a single Code across both their areas of responsibility. As a result, and in recognition of the different legal powers each hold, they have agreed to produce two closely aligned Codes.

In view of this, the Council looked to harmonise both the Corporate and Housing Complaints Policies to deliver the expectations of the closely aligned Ombudsman Codes and I am pleased to say that such a Policy was presented to the Audit Committee yesterday, who agreed to recommend to Cabinet that it be adopted. I am hopeful that this will be on the Agenda for our July meeting.”

The Leader of the Council read out the Governing Body’s formal response as set out hereunder: -

“Cabinet welcomes the Annual Housing Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, including self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code presented by Councillor Baker in his role as Portfolio Holder for Housing & Planning and member responsible for Housing related complaints.

We would like to thank Councillor Baker for taking on this role and his commitment to it over the past year. We know that he has an eye for detail and is keen to deliver the best services for our tenants. His drive, scrutiny of data and chairmanship of the Housing Improvement Board has, we are sure, led to some of the improvements presented in the report. The service has also introduced a raft of new policies, with more to come. Complaints are an important part of the delivery of our housing landlord function. Genuine complaints, constructively made, can highlight areas where our services can be improved and provide opportunities to question our approach.

Cabinet is pleased to see an improvement in complaint response times. If we are to take complaints seriously, we must ensure that we respond within published timescales. It would be good to see a year-on-year improvement in response times. Satisfaction with our approach to complaint handling, as measured through the annual tenant satisfaction survey, has also improved when compared to the 2023/24 survey response. We feel this is a good indication that the service is getting things right but, along with Councillor Baker, we would like to see a further improvement on this satisfaction rate and would like Councillor Baker to explore how this can be improved with representatives of the Tenants Panel and officers.

With involvement from the Tenants Panel we would like to hear more about service improvement and learning from complaints. The setting up of a Tenants Panel sub-group to explore this in more detail is welcomed. In particular, are there particular themes to complaints that we can understand better?

The self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code is an important document that Councillor Baker has had input to. Overall Cabinet endorses the self-assessment but would like to see more detail on complaint themes and trends in future reports.”

In order to approve the self-assessment carried out and to provide the Governing Body’s response before its submission to the Housing Ombudsman: -

It was moved by Councillor Baker, seconded by Councillor M E Stephenson and: -

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and in compliance with Cabinet’s scrutiny and oversight requirements, formally receives and notes the Council’s Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, which includes the Annual Self-Assessment against the Code, as set out in Appendices A and B to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.3);

(b)    formally approves its response, as submitted by the Leader of the Council at this meeting and recorded above, to the Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report, for publication; and

(c)     authorises Officers to publish both the Service Improvement Report and the Cabinet’s response thereto on the Council’s website within the section relating to complaints and to submit the self-assessment to the Housing Ombudsman by no later than 30 September 2025.