Housing complaints annual report 2024/2025

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has a framework of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) that all social landlords must collect and report on annually. In relation to complaint handling, the TSMs include:

• satisfaction with the landlord's approach to complaint handling
• complaints relative to the size of the landlord
• complaints responded to within Complaint Handling Code timescales

Satisfaction with the landlord's approach to complaint handling 

This is measured by a sample survey carried out by telephone. A market research company Kwest Research Ltd carried out the survey on the council's behalf.

The question asks if the tenant has made a complaint in the previous 12 months and if yes how satisfied are they with the way it has been handled. In 2024/25 satisfaction decreased from 26% in 2023/24 to 18%. Our performance puts us in the lowest quartile when benchmarked against other social landlords.

Complaints relative to the size of the landlord 

This TSM reports the number of complaints received per 1000 properties. This alongside data from the other Tenant Satisfaction Measures provides an indication as to how effectively a landlord's complaint policy is being implemented.

In 2023/24 we reported relatively low levels of complaints registered and dealt with formally. This suggested that some complaints were being dealt with outside of the council's complaints policy and therefore not in line with the CHC.

In 2024/25 we registered 35 stage 1 complaints per 1000 homes and 5.3 stage 2 complaints per 1000 homes. Both exceed the key performance indicator targets set at the beginning of the year and significant increases compared with 2023/24.

In total, 650 stage 1 complaints were registered during 2024/25 compared with 429 in 2023/24 and 99 stage 2 complaints compared with 56 in 2023/24. In the final quarter of 2024/25, 297 stage 1 complaints were registered and 51 stage 2.

Complaints responded to within the Complaint Handling Code timescale

To ensure compliance with the CHC the council has a two-stage process for Housing complaints with a target of 10 working days to respond to stage 1 complaints and 20 working days for stage 2 complaints.

In 2024/25, we responded to 67% of stage 1 complaints within the target of 10 working days. Also, during 2024/25 a backlog of 111 unanswered stage one complaints were cleared in full. These complaints all exceeded the 10-day target, and this impacted on the final performance figure. However, performance in 2024/25 shows a significant improvement from the 29% reported in 2023/24. In relation to stage 2 complaints, 84% were responded to within timescale.

The full set of TSM results will be submitted to the RSH by 30 June 2025. They will publish the results of all social landlords on their website later in the year. We will also publish the results and our response on our website.