Issue - meetings

That Cabinet:

a)       make the existing Housing Complaints Coordinator role permanent;

b)      approve the additional roles of a Complaints and Learning / Improvement Officer (1FTE) on a permanent basis and a Complaints Coordinator (1 FTE) for a fixed term period of 1 year, with a further review to consider if this second role needs to be permanent;

c)       approve the required budget for 2026/27 of £119,450 to be funded from the HRA Service Improvement reserve;

d)       note the annual budget required (c. £100k) for future years will be added into the base budget at budget setting for 2027/28 onwards; and

e)       note the recruitment of temporary support until the above roles are approved and recruited (for approx. 6 months from April 2026).

The Housing Regulatory Compliance Manager presented a report which set out the challenges facing housing services in relation to complaints and put forward proposals for improving the complaints handling service. It was reported that since the revised Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code came into effect on 1 April 2024 there had been a continual increase in complaints, particularly in relation to time taken to complete repairs. This had impacted on the ability of officers to handle complaints in accordance with the Code. In addition, during 2023/24 the Government launched a ‘Make Things Right’ Campaign to raise greater awareness amongst social housing tenants of how they could make a complaint which had also resulted in increased numbers of formal complaints.

The proposals to manage the increased number of complaints were set out in the report and it was considered that having dedicated officers for complaints would improve the customer experience as they would have fewer points of contact and it would eradicate the need to repeat the same issue multiple times.

AGREED     (unanimously) that Cabinet:

a)           make the existing Housing Complaints Coordinator role permanent;

b)          approve the additional roles of a Complaints and Learning / Improvement Officer (1FTE) on a permanent basis and a Complaints Coordinator (1 FTE) for a fixed term period of 1 year, with a further review to consider if this second role needs to be permanent;

c)           approve the required budget for 2026/27 of £119,450 to be funded from the HRA Service Improvement reserve;

d)          note the annual budget required (c. £100k) for future years will be added into the base budget at budget setting for 2027/28 onwards; and

e)           note the recruitment of temporary support until the above roles are approved and recruited (for approx. 6 months from April 2026).

Reasons for Decision:

To allow the Council to meet its obligations under the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code and provide an excellent complaint handling service for our customers. 

Options Considered:

There has been close monitoring of complaints volumes and performance during the last 12 months, which is the basis of the recommendations and therefore no alternative options are being considered at this point.