What is a complaint
Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
From 1st April 2024, the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, which sets out how we must handle complaints where we are a landlord, became statutory. We have therefore revised the Council’s Corporate Complaints, Comments and Compliments Policy.
This means if you are a Council tenant or a Council leaseholder and have cause to complain, your complaint will be handled under this policy.
Read the Corporate Complaints, Comments and Compliments Policy
If you are NOT a Council tenant or Council leaseholder and have cause to complain, your complaint will be handled under the existing policy.
The needs of residents are our top priority and we pride ourselves in delivering quality services in the most effective and efficient way possible. Sometimes things go wrong and we need to be aware so that we can fix and learn from them.
The Council’s definition of a complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about:
- failure to follow process
- failure to follow the Council’s own policy
- significant or repeated failure to provide a service
- failure to do what we said we would do
- failure to respond.
Not every expression of dissatisfaction will be a complaint. Some dissatisfaction about the Council’s action will be treated as a request for us to do something, for example, a service request. We will deal with these as part of the Council’s day to day business, rather than through our complaints process.
The most effective way to request a service or report something to the Council is through our standard customer contact channels. Some examples of these are:
- Missed bin collection
- Graffiti
- Broken street light
- Litter
- Fly tipping
- Potholes
- Abandoned cars
- Grass cutting
