The Housing Ombudsman (the independent public body that looks at complaints within the social housing sector) introduced a new code of conduct in 2020 to ensure that all complaints from leaseholders and tenants are handled effectively and fairly. This code was further strengthened in 2022 and we have looked carefully at our complaints procedure to ensure that we continue to comply with the new code, however we are always looking for ways to improve.
It is important that we know as soon as possible when things have not gone well, so that we can investigate what happened and take action to put things right if needed. Feedback also allows us to continually learn and improve.
There are several ways you can give us feedback:
- Online: www.norwich.gov.uk/complaints
- Email: mailto:listening@norwich.gov.uk
- In writing: Norwich City Council, City Hall, St Peter’s Street, Norwich, NR2 1NH
- In person to a member of staff or contractors, or by completing and returning satisfaction surveys.
More information on making a complaint
The Government’s Make Things Right campaign aims to inform residents on how to raise complaints if they are unhappy with the service from their social housing provider.
We also have lots of information on our website, including how to contact the Ombudsman.
Housing complaint reports 2022-23
- Number of Stage 1 housing complaints - 1,037
- Number of Stage 1 complaints responded to within 10 days - 52%
- Justified complaint Stage 1 (Yes) - 341*
- Justified complaint Stage 1 (No) - 305*
* Not all complaints were recorded as justified or unjustified, so the figures shown above do not match the total number of complaints received in a given year. Further work is planned to improve the quality of complaints data being captured.
Nature of housing complaints received 2022-23
| Nature of complaint | Complaints received |
|---|---|
| Failing to provide an agreed service | 270 |
| Standard of service provided | 571 |
| Service requested but not provided | 102 |
| Not following an agreed procedure | 9 |
| Employee contractor attitude or conduct | 27 |
| Other | 58 |
Learning from complaints
As a way of making sure that Norwich City Council continues to learn from complaints, a new quarterly review process was implemented in 2023.
This process enables senior managers to meet each quarter, to look at all housing complaints received and resolved and to see whether there are any specific issues or trends occurring. These meetings also examine cases being investigated by the Housing Ombudsman across the housing sector as a whole to identify if we can obtain any additional learnings or improvements.
Improvements implemented as a result of these meetings during 2022-23 were:
- We identified that we needed to improve the data we recorded for whether complaints had been found to be justified or not. We therefore undertook a data quality exercise towards the end of the financial year with an aim to improve the recording of this information. The results of this improvement will be visible when we publish this data within our next annual report for 2023-24.
- We instigated an ongoing quality assurance process for all completed stage 2 housing complaints, where we reviewed the timeliness, clarity and quality of our complaint handling. The results of each quality assurance check are reported to our senior management team during their regular quarterly meetings.
