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Complaint Handling Satisfaction not Improving in Social Housing - Coggle…
Complaint Handling Satisfaction not Improving in Social Housing
Is comment true?
Overall Satisfaction
Tenant satisfaction is reasonable and holding steady. Median landlord satisfaction was 72% Lower Quartile was 65%, Upper quartile was 79% (1)
Overall satisfaction varies by collection method, region, landlord size and amount of supported housing/age [so comparisons are complex] (1)
Among telephone surveys, overall satisfaction stayed highly stable at 71.4% in 2023/24 vs 71.3% in 2024/25 (1)
Satisfaction is higher among landlords who conduct their own interviews (1)
Older people are more likely to be satisfied which is why landlords with more supported housing report higher satisfaction. (1)
Satisfaction is lower in London (1)
Larger landlords have lower satisfaction. Likely to have more complexity in their operations (1)
Age, landlord size, gender, living in London, having a disability impact on overall satisfaction. Tenant age is the most influential tenant characteristic on satisfaction (2) p5. Neighbourhood deprivation, ethnicity and property age have no significant influence.
Regulator claims that landlord service quality is the primary factor affecting tenant satisfaction [proof?] (1)
Qualitative and statistical evidence suggests that tenants' experience of the responsive repairs service and home maintenance of overall satisfaction e.g. 64% of LCRA tenants that are dissatisfied with overall landlord services cite repairs issues as the reason why (2)
Spontaneously those satisfied with overall service are most likely to cite customer service (26%) and Repairs (18%). (2 p11)
Spontaneously those dissatisfied overall are most likely to cite repairs (64%), customer service (16%) Maintenance (11%) and Costs (8%) (2 p12)
Regression analysis shows that TP04 (home well maintained) has the strongest influence on overall satisfaction (2 p13)
Regression shows that tenants views on services has higher impact on overall satisfaction than the stock and demographic characteristics (2 p13) Full regression shows on p13. Well maintained 20%, treats tenants fairly and with respect 13%, listens to your views and acts on them 12% and overall repairs service 12%. [interesting that attitude has quite a strong impact]
Being listened to is an important factor in satisfaction (2 p19) Formal communication from landlords can feel generic and not relevant to them (2 p20)
Repairs
79% of 11m non-emergency repairs were completed within target timescales in 2024/25 (1)
Responsive repairs are the main interaction between tenants and their landlords. 68% of LCRA tenants have had at least one repair carried out in their home in the last 12 months (1)
79% of non-emergency repairs and 91% of energency repairs were completed on time (1). Considerable variation by landlord: Lower quartile for non-emergency = 75% and upper quartile = 89% [looks like they can set their own timescales!] (1)
During 2024/25 just over 18.7m responsive repairs were closed without completion (ie cancelled by landlord or tenant). At year end there were about 1.2m 'work in progress' responsive repairs. Median landlord figure cancelled 11% of responsive repairs raised in 2024/25 and had 5% of repairs uncompleted at year end.(1)
3.7% of LCRA homes did not meet the Decent Homes standard at 31/3/25 (1)
LCRA tenants would most like to see the repairs service and keeping homes well maintained improved out of all the TSM's (2 p16)
When tenants are dissatisfied with repairs service it is because of quality of work (52%), incomplete repairs (44%) and time taken to resolve repairs. Among those with a disability, 'not considering disabilities and vulnerabilities was 28%) (2 p17) Cognitive interviews also highlighted convenience of repair appointments, communication and number of visits to complete a repair.
Important that tenants feel that the root cause is repaired (2 p18)
Complaints
82.2% of Stage 1 complaints were responded to within the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code timescale. 83.3 of stage 2 complaints responded to in timescales (1)
35.5% of LCRA tenants who made a complaint in the last 12 months are satisfied with their landlord's approach to complaint handling. Up from 34.5% YOY (1) LQ is 30% and UQ is 42%
42.5 Stage one complaints received per 1000 homes. 5.7 Stage 2 complaints per 1000 homes in 2024/25(1)
Complaints increased from 5.7 complaints per 1000 units to 8.3 in 2024/25. This may reflect changes in definition meaning that the proportion of tenants making a complaint has not increased (1)
Median Stage 1 complaints per 1000 = 53.5, LQ 34.3 UQ 72.2. Median Stage 2 complaints per 1000 8.3, LQ 5.2, UQ 13.6 (1)
The proportion of tenants who say they made a complaint (TP09) is 26% whereas landlords identify the rate at 6.7% (1) National Tenant Survey finds that what tenants consider a complaint may be recorded as a service request by the landlord.(1)
Qual work from NTS suggests what some tenants consider a complaint may be logged as a service request (2 p10)
Official definition of a complaint by the Ombudsman is "An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard
Around a fifth of tenants who made a complaint would be considered a complaint under the Complaint Handling Code (2 p22)
Repairs and maintenance describe the majority of issues that tenants report complaining about (59%) (2 p22) Particular issues include taking too long to deal with repairs, damp and mould, issues with plumbing and heating and poor quality of workmanship (2 p22)
Larger landlords (40,000+ units) have significantly lower average satisfaction than smaller landlords on complaints (2 p24)
What is a complaint?
A resident doesn't have to term something a 'complaint' for it to be treated as such. Whenever a resident expresses dissatisfaction landlords must give them the choice to make a complaint. (3)
Landlords have to recognise the difference between a service request and a complaint. A service request is a request from a resident to the landlord that requires action to be taken to put something right (3 p6) [You can see why a tenant might regard this as a complaint]
Dissatisfaction expressed in a survey is not classified as a complaint though where possible the respondent should be told how they could pursue it (3 p6). [Again, you can see why a tenant might regard this as a complaint]
Acceptable exclusions to complaints include issue giving rise to complaint happened over a year ago, matter has been previously considered under the complaints policy (3 p6). Landlord must explain reason for exclusion teant can take this to the Ombudsman
Landlords are responsible for making sure third parties handle complaints in line with the code (3 p8)
Landlord must make it easy for all groups to complain (3 p7)
Landlords must have a clear complaints policy that is easily accessible to tenants (3 p7)
When complaint response falls outside the timescales set in the code, the landlord must agree with the resident suitable intervals for keeping them informed about their complaint (3 p9)
Stage 1 complaints must be acknowledged, defined and logged within 5 working days of receipt of complaint. Landlords must issue a full response to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days (3 p10)
Stage 2 complaints must be acknowledged, defined and logged within 5 working days of the escalation request being received (3 p11)
Landlords must produce an Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report (3 p.12)
"Landlords must use complaints as a source of intelligence to identify issues and introduce positive changes in service delivery" (3 p13)
General
TSM's need to be interpreted in the round because for eg. more complaints may reflect openness to complaints (1)
Attitudes and Culture
Satisfaction with the landlord treating tenants with fairness and respect is one of the highest scoring perception measures at 78% for LCRA (TP08). [How does this fit with complaints about culture?] (1)
TP06 Listens and acts Median 62% LQ 54% UQ 69% . Likely to reflect service requests and complaints (1)
TP07 Keeps tenants informed Median 72% UQ 77% LQ 66%. Reflects more formal communication from landlords (1)
Safe homes
Median view that home is safe is 78%. LQ 72% UQ 83% (1) This may reflect safety checks, but also building security, general maintenance and crime and anti-social behaviour
Tenants who feel unsafe in their homes do so because of a. repairs (50%), b. building security (17%) and crime and aSB (14%)
Communal areas and neighbourhood
TP10 satisfaction 67% LQ61% UQ 73%. TP11 Neighbourhood Median 65% LQ 58% UQ 72% TP12 Handling ASB Median 60%, LQ 55%, UQ 66% (1) TP11 may reflect areas where the landlord has limited influence [how much do tenants understand what is under the landlord's remit]
TP11 and TP12 are the TSM's with the weakest impact on overall satisfaction (2) p10.
For communal areas, functionality matters more than decoration to satisfaction (2 p20)
How important is it that satisfaction in handling isn't improving
Why isn't satisfaction in handling not improving
Financial pressure on landlords to improve existing homes and build new ones (4)
Landlords are engaged in programmes of building safety remediation and damp and mould repair works (4)
Who handles complaint handling well and why?
Who handles complaint handling badly and why?
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Responsible landlord for Awaab's house. Parents believe they received poorer treatment because of racism. They had "no doubt at all that we were treated this way because we are not from this country and less aware of how the systems in the UK work" (5)
Awaab coroner ruled that family's lack of English prevented them from engaging in discussions with the landlord (5)
RBH said that a legal disrepaid process got in the way of promptly tackling the mould (5)
What might improve complaint handling?
17% of complainants said process could not be improved, 28% said resolving issues 14% said responding quicker and 13% said communication “The complaint hadn't been handled because they haven't done the job yet. they were
going to let me know what was going to happen, but they haven't done so.” (2 p23).
NTS cognitive interviews suggest acknowledging and updating tenants was a key way to improve the complaints process as well as staff attitude (being listened to and respected) (2 p23)
Sometimes tenants feel landlords blame contractors (2 p23)
Should be follow up to check problem has been resolved (2 p23)
Could be improved by landlords acknowledging the complaint and explaining They could have got back to me and explained their side of things. I just wanted a
response.” (2 p23)
Timescales
April 2024 New complaints handling code introduced (1)
November 2020 Government publishes 'The Charter for Social Housing Residents: Social Housing White Paper. Commitment to strengthen the regulator's consumer regulation role (2)
September 2022 TSM's and technical requirements published by regulator (2)
2023/24 First set of TWM's surveyed (2)
Further things to look at
2025/26 results
Best and worst performing landlords (inc their complaint handling report)
Housemark