Social housing landlords urged to overhaul complaint systems

The social housing sector needs to better handle complaints and run on “good infrastructure rather than goodwill”, new research claims.

A story in Inside Housing reveals research by consultancy firm Campbell Tickell that found empathy in complaints handling emerged as the strongest predictor of tenant satisfaction. Social housing landlords with higher empathy scores also received fewer formal complaints.

The news comes as more than 430,000 social homes fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard.

Complaints are a goldmine

Inside Housing reports that social housing landlords need more robust IT systems to deal with complaints, amid findings of a lack of awareness among senior leaders about the reality of complaints handling.

The research suggests that executives often hold a more positive view than staff and tenants dealing with complaints day to day.

Francesca Macey, the Campbell Tickell consultant who led the research, told a webinar presenting the findings: “Right now, the sector is running on goodwill rather than a good infrastructure, and that’s the definition, we say, of a hero culture, which is very admirable, but ultimately is going to be unsustainable.”

As reported in Inside Housing, Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, who also addressed the webinar, said complaints are “a daily reflection of the way in which teams work with each other, and the way in which teams work with residents, and how processes and practices work”.

He continued: “They can give you a sense of, are your values being lived? Is your behaviour framework being followed? Are you seeing behaviours that you wouldn’t expect? Are your processes empowering of people?

“Complaints are a goldmine for providing that kind of insight, but it’s important to make sure that senior leaders are able to engage in that intelligence, and boards are able to debate it.”

Mr Blakeway added that board members should be “getting outside the boardroom, getting on the ground, going to visit properties, and also making sure they’re not going to just visit the properties that have recently been redecorated”.

Rise in complaints

As previously reported by Property118, the Housing Ombudsman has set out its plans to tackle a rise in complaint cases involving social housing landlords.

Over the last five years, the Ombudsman has seen more than a 500% increase in cases, reaching more than 13,000 last year.

The Housing Ombudsman has also called for fair compensation across the social housing sector after a report found that social housing landlords are failing to apply their own compensation policies correctly.