What We've Learned From Complaints - February Update

Every month, we look closely at the complaints and service requests we receive from customers. This helps us spot problems and make things better.

Here’s what we found in February:

How many complaints did we get in February?

• We had 34  Stage 1 complaints
• We had 2 Stage 2 complaints (this is when someone isn’t happy with how their Stage 1 complaint was handled)
• We also had 73 service requests (these are things we can sort out quickly without needing a formal complaint)

The number of complaints logged during February was significantly higher than February last year (21).

The most common issues raised by customers were:

• Time to complete a repair

We identified that a significant number of service requests and complaints were linked to the length of time taken to complete repairs, especially electrical repairs.

To address this, we have involved more contractors and companies, to provide electrical services to our customers.

How quickly did we respond?

• On average, we replied to complaints in 4 working days in February
• So far this year, the average is 5 working days, which meets the required timescales from the Housing Ombudsman (10 working days)

Were people happy with how we handled their complaint?

We didn’t receive any responses in February to our transactional satisfaction survey for complaints and our satisfaction rate currently remains at 88.2% for the year to date.

Compensation

• We paid out £2874.73 in compensation in February
• That brings the total so far this year to £31,622.59

Your Voice customers told us that we needed to be more consistent in our approach to paying compensation. We have reviewed these processes and are confident that this is now happening.

Did we reject any complaints?

No – we accepted all complaints in February and for the year so far.

Learning from February

In February, the main themes identified across both service requests and complaints were works not completed, quality of work, and the time taken to complete repairs involving our main contractors.

We’re using this feedback to:
• Focus on completion times, quality of work, and unfinished repairs as key improvement priorities
• Strengthen performance management of contractors, particularly where delays or quality issues are evident
• Work with contractors to address resourcing and responsiveness issues, including delays in communication and completion
• Continue to challenge missed service standards, including response times and follow-up actions
• Improve how we record and analyse complaints and service requests, so trends can be identified and acted on earlier
• Take quicker escalation action where performance falls below expected standards
• Strengthen communication with customers, particularly where repairs are delayed or require multiple visits

We are using this learning to drive improvements in contractor performance, quality assurance, and service delivery, with a clear focus on completing repairs on time and to the right standard first time.

Complaints and service requests are a vital source of insight and help us improve services for everyone. If something has gone wrong, please let us know so we can put it right and learn from it.

You can find out more about our complaints process, access our complaints policy or make a complaint by clicking here.