Issue - meetings

A report setting out the Council’s annual submission on complaints and outlining how the Council complies with the nine sections of the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

Cabinet

(1)  APROVED the Council’s complaints annual submission which is made up of a complaints handling self-assessment (Appendix 1) and an annual complaints performance and service improvement report (Appendix 2) as required as part of the Housing Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code.

(2)  NOTED that the Portfolio Holder for Governance, Environment and Regulatory Services in her capacity as Member Responsible for Complaints will provide a narrative summary as part of the annual submission.

(3)  NOTED that the annual complaints submission will be submitted to the Housing Ombudsman by 30th June 2024.

The Portfolio Holder for Governance, Environment and Regulatory Services introduced the report on the annual submission on complaints to the Housing Ombudsman, in doing so moved the recommendations. The Leader seconded the motion. The portfolio Holder thanked the team who managed the complaints.

It was noted that the Housing Ombudsman doesn’t take into account of organisations who are not just landlords and therefore Officer had to separate out the different types of complaints.

It was confirmed that historically, if a complaint didn’t specifically state it was a complaint, then it wasn’t treated as such, however now that is not the case.

RESOLVED

Cabinet

(1)  APPROVED the Council’s complaints annual submission which is made up of a complaints handling self-assessment (Appendix 1) and an annual complaints performance and service improvement report (Appendix 2) as required as part of the Housing Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code.

(2)  NOTED that the Portfolio Holder for Governance, Environment and Regulatory Services in her capacity as Member Responsible for Complaints will provide a narrative summary as part of the annual submission.

(3)  NOTED that the annual complaints submission will be submitted to the Housing Ombudsman by 30th June 2024.

(Non-key Decision)

Reasons for recommendations

It is a requirement that as part of the Council’s governance arrangements, Cabinet should consider the information contained in our annual submission to the Housing Ombudsman. Cabinet should note the position of the Council against this self-assessment and reflect on the performance on complaints for the Council and specifically for Housing in its role as landlord through the annual complaints’ performance and service improvement report.