Housing performance

A complaint must be defined as:

‘an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.'

Section 4.3 of our policy sets out the definition of a complaint:

‘A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the standard of service, actions, or lack of actions by the organisation, its staff, or those acting on behalf of the organisation. It may affect an individual or group of individuals’.

Examples included within the policy are:

• a ‘problem that hasn’t been sorted out’
• a member of staff has been rude to you
• we have not done something that we said we would
• we have taken too long to decide or provide a service
• we have given poor advice
• we have not treated you fairly
• you are unhappy about a change we have made

A copy of North Northamptonshire Council’s current Compliments, Comments and Complaint’s Policy is available.

The new policy was approved by the council’s Executive Committee in July 2024 to align all services to the same timescales.

The new version of the policy was published on the council’s website in the complaints section on the 14 October.

Residents are not required to use the word ‘complaint’, if a resident expresses dissatisfaction this will be investigated and responded to within the complaints process.

The organisation is committed to ensuring there is a comprehensive understanding to support this and will continue to work to ensure complaints in all forms are recognised and responded to.

Landlords must recognise the difference between a service request and a complaint. This must be set out in their complaints policy.

A service request is a request from a resident to the landlord requiring action to be taken to put something right.

Service requests are not complaints, but must be recorded, monitored and reviewed regularly.

Where a service request is received by the complaints team, this will be logged and passed to the relevant person to respond to the service request.

Section 4 of the council’s complaints policy defines the difference between a complaint and a service request.

On the council website customers are provided with the opportunity on the complaints page to submit an online form to report an issue or service request.
 

Residents can make a complaint at any time during the handling of a service request, this will be investigated following the complaints process. The service request will still be addressed.

The council’s complaints policy states:

‘Action to address a service request will not stop if a complaint is raised about the issue while action is still ongoing.’

An expression of dissatisfaction with services made through a survey is not defined as a complaint, though wherever possible, the person completing the survey should be made aware of how they can pursue a complaint if they wish to.

Where landlords ask for wider feedback about their services, they also must provide details of how residents can complain.

The Tenant Satisfaction Survey of all council tenants conducted in 2023/24 asked whether tenants would be happy to share their details with the council in order to assess further any dissatisfaction. The next survey is being conducted by telephone providing the opportunity to understand dissatisfaction where possible.

The latest edition of the tenant newsletter (November 24) has a page dedicated to the complaints process along with information on the Housing Ombudsman to ensure all tenants understand how they can make a complaint if they need to.

The Housing service are currently reviewing operational satisfaction surveys and will be adding a link to the corporate complaints policy to the bottom of surveys.

All complaints are considered on their own merits, and will be accepted as a complaint, unless they fall within the exclusions set out in the council’s corporate complaints policy in section 2.

Section 2 provides detail on what falls outside of the scope of the corporate complaints policy.

A complaints policy must set out the circumstances in which a matter will not be considered as a complaint or escalated, and these circumstances must be fair and reasonable to residents. Acceptable exclusions include:

• the issue giving rise to the complaint occurred over twelve months ago
• legal proceedings have started. This is defined as details of the claim, such as the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim, having been filed at court
• matters that have previously been considered under the complaints policy

Section 2 of North Northamptonshire Council’s complaints policy sets out exclusions. The exclusions are outside of the Housing Ombudsman jurisdiction and are normally where there are Government regulations that set out how we make a decision. The appeals process for such decisions would be separate from the complaints process.

The council’s complaints page on the website also includes information on when the corporate complaints process does not apply and where there is a separate process to be followed.

Landlords must accept complaints referred to them within 12 months of the issue occurring or the resident becoming aware of the issue, unless they are excluded on other grounds.

Landlords must consider whether to apply discretion to accept complaints made outside this time limit where there are good reasons to do so.

If a landlord decides not to accept a complaint, an explanation must be provided to the resident setting out the reasons why the matter is not suitable for the complaints process and the right to take that decision to the Ombudsman.

If the Ombudsman does not agree that the exclusion has been fairly applied, the Ombudsman may tell the landlord to take on the complaint.

All complaints will be accepted unless they fall under the exclusions listed within the policy.

If correspondence falls within the list of exclusions, and therefore follows an alternative process to the complaints process, an explanation will be provided to the resident.

There are many ways to complain to North Northamptonshire Council including:

• by website form
• by telephone
• by email
• in writing
• Asking your local councillor to raise it for you

These are all listed on the council’s website and within the policy.

A copy of the corporate complaints policy is available and a dedicated complaints section has now been added to the council’s intranet.

Complaints training rolled out council wide at the end of September to cover the new policy requirements for wider services and the new system being introduced.

A copy of the complaints policy is available.

All documents on the council’s website are produced in an accessible format with clear language.

Along with the policy document the two stages are also set out on the complaints page of the council’s website.

The Housing Ombudsman details are included in the corporate complaint’s policy, as well as on our website. The Housing Ombudsman details are also part of complaint responses advising customers, they can contact the Housing Ombudsman service to investigate their complaint and that this will be an independent investigation.

Complaint responses include details on the Housing Ombudsman Service along with a link to the complaint form and contact details.

Landlords must have a person or team assigned to take responsibility for complaint handling, including liaison with the Ombudsman and ensuring complaints are reported to the governing body (or equivalent).

This Code will refer to that person or team as the ‘complaints officer’. This role may be in addition to other duties.

The council has a Corporate Complaints Team who are responsible for acknowledging complaints and passing to the relevant service area for investigation.

The Corporate Complaints Team is responsible for the record keeping of all complaints and is responsible for reporting complaints performance to councillors and the Corporate Management Team.

Housing is currently undergoing a restructure which plans to introduce a dedicated Complaint’s Officer within the Housing team to co-ordinate all Housing complaints and be the liaison with the Corporate Complaints Team to ensure there is a strong oversight and responsibility for complaints within the service.

The complaints process has recently been reviewed. The investigation and responses of complaints are now dealt with within each service area, this helps to improve access to relevant staff and systems.

The policy ensures complaints are responded to by officers with authority to investigate and resolve including where the resolution involves decision making.

Landlords are expected to prioritise complaint handling and a culture of learning from complaints. All relevant staff must be suitably trained in the importance of complaint handling.

It is important that complaints are seen as a core service and must be resourced to handle complaints effectively.

At each stage of the complaints process, complaint handlers must:

1. Deal with complaints on their merits, act independently, and have an open mind.
2. Give the resident a fair chance to set out their position.
3. Take measures to address any actual or perceived conflict of interest.
4. Consider all relevant information and evidence carefully.

Landlords must make reasonable adjustments for residents where appropriate under the Equality Act 2010.

Landlords must keep a record of any reasonable adjustments agreed, as well as a record of any disabilities a resident has disclosed. Any agreed reasonable adjustments must be kept under active review.

The Council welcomes complaints from all sections of the community and may encourage people to seek support from friends or other representatives who may be able to assist them in making a complaint. The Council will advise people on where to find such assistance as appropriate.

Assistance will be given where appropriate to people who have difficulty with written or spoken English and to disabled people. People will also be able to make complaints in their own language if this is preferable. The Council’s intention is that all members of the public should have full access to the Compliments, Comments or Complaints Procedure.

A new remedy policy has been drafted and approved. This policy sets out appropriate remedies.

This policy is published internally only.

Sometimes people may behave unreasonably, be unacceptably persistent, stop us looking into the matter or make repeated complaints about the same subject as well as contacting us many more times than is necessary to resolve a matter.

We call this type of complaint persistent or vexatious.

In these cases, we may limit our responses or advise residents that we cannot respond. The Council’s Unacceptable or Unreasonable Communications and Behaviour Policy has been reviewed, revised and received Executive approval. 

A copy of the policy will be published externally and the council is developing it’s processes and support for managing unacceptable behaviour.

Improvements have been made to the council’s internal complaints resource on the Intranet.

The page includes a copy of the following:

• Policy
• Forms
• Remedy guidance
• Template letters
• Differences between Service request or complaints

The complaints handling toolkit also includes links to Housing Ombudsman guidance.

Ombudsman training sessions are also to be provided to managers following a council wide session held in September 2024.

Any outstanding actions following the complaint response will be included in the learning plan along with dates when the outstanding actions will be completed.

The Housing service is responsible for maintaining its learning and improvement outcomes; this will be subject to reporting and corporate scrutiny.

Landlords must confirm the following in writing to the resident at the completion of stage 1 in clear, plain language:

1. The complaint stage.
2. The complaint definition.
3. The decision on the complaint.
4. The reasons for any decisions made.
5. The details of any remedy offered to put things right.
6. Details of any outstanding actions.
7. Details of how to escalate the matter to stage 2 if the individual is not satisfied with the response.

In section 4 of the Council’s Corporate Complaints Policy it sets out:

Our response to you will set out the issues investigated, the background to the case, the evidence used in assessing the case, the reasons for the findings or decisions made. If we identify we did something wrong, we will explain what went wrong and why and take appropriate steps to remedy the service failure in line with appropriate policy.

The council has letter templates for each stage to ensure all relevant information is included in the responses.

The Council’s Corporate Complaints Policy in section 4 sets out that if a complaint is complex, or we need more information, it may take longer – however we will let residents know when this is required, and when they will hear from us.

Example - 4.9.4 If a response cannot be provided within 10 working days you will be contacted with an explanation and updated with a date for resolution.

Landlords must confirm the following in writing to the resident at the completion of stage 2 in clear, plain language:

1. The complaint stage.
2. The complaint definition.
3. The decision on the complaint.
4. The reasons for any decisions made.
5. The details of any remedy offered to put things right.
6. Details of any outstanding actions.
7. Details of how to escalate the matter to the Ombudsman Service if the individual remains dissatisfied.

In section 4 of the Council’s Corporate Complaints Policy it sets out:

Our response to you will set out the issues investigated, the background to the case, the evidence used in assessing the case, the reasons for the findings or decisions made. If we identify we did something wrong, we will explain what went wrong and why and take appropriate steps to remedy the service failure in line with appropriate policy.

The council has letter templates for each stage to ensure all relevant is included in the responses.

Where something has gone wrong a landlord must acknowledge this and set out the actions it has already taken, or intends to take, to put things right. These can include:

• apologising
• acknowledging where things have gone wrong
• providing an explanation, assistance or reasons
• taking action if there has been delay
• reconsidering or changing a decision
• amending a record or adding a correction or addendum
• providing a financial remedy
• changing policies, procedures or practices

Landlords must produce an annual complaints performance and service improvement report for scrutiny and challenge, which must include:

1. The annual self-assessment against this Code to ensure their complaint handling policy remains in line with its requirements.
2. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the landlord’s complaint handling performance. This must also include a summary of the types of complaints the landlord has refused to accept.
3. Any findings of non-compliance with this Code by the Ombudsman.
4. The service improvements made as a result of the learning from complaints.
5. Any annual report about the landlord’s performance from the Ombudsman.
6. Any other relevant reports or publications produced by the Ombudsman in relation to the work of the landlord.

A copy of the Council’s annual complaints performance and service improvement report is available.

The annual complaints performance and service improvement report was presented at the Council’s Executive Committee in September 2024 along with the Regulator of Social Housing Tenant Satisfaction Measures.

The annual complaints performance and service improvement report was presented at the Council’s Executive Committee in September 2024.

Executive Committee Decision:

Resolved

That the Executive:

a) Noted the performance of the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) as set out in Appendix A, comparative performance across six other housing providers provided in Appendix B and the Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report provided in Appendix C. 

This self-assessment has been reviewed following the 2024 changes to the Code and will be reviewed following any significant restructure or change in procedures.

The new Customer comments, Compliments and Complaints Policy was approved by the Council’s Executive Committee in July 2024 and published online in October 2024. This self-assessment form has been updated based on the new policy.

Learning plans are produced along with complaint responses. Each service area is responsible for maintaining its learning and improvement outcomes; this will be subject to reporting and corporate scrutiny.

Further work to be undertaken on learning from complaints and analysing the information to provide data insight which can link in with and identify service improvement projects.

The new policy supports this, and a positive Complaint Handling culture is being developed with additional training, guidance and information being rolled out and a new case management system being introduced. A project team has been set up to help enhance our customer experience, automate complaints processes, boost efficiency, and effectively address complaints for organisational learning and improvement.

The way complaints are handled within the service area is currently being reviewed, with the forthcoming recruitment of a Complaints Officer as part of the restructure. This will ensure there is more work on learning from complaints and linking in with service improvement.

The Corporate Performance team report on complaints to Executive on a regular basis. Power BI dashboard is currently being developed to help provide real-time information on housing complaints which can be shared with key stakeholders on a regular basis.

The way complaints are handled within the service area is currently being reviewed, with the plan to recruit a dedicated Complaints Officer. This will ensure there is more work on learning from complaints and linking in with service improvement.

As a minimum, the MRC and the governing body (or equivalent) must receive:

1. Regular updates on the volume, categories and outcomes of complaints, alongside complaint handling performance.
2. Regular reviews of issues and trends arising from complaint handling.
3. Regular updates on the outcomes of the Ombudsman’s investigations and progress made in complying with orders related to severe maladministration findings.
4. Annual complaints performance and service improvement report.

Landlords must have a standard objective in relation to complaint handling for all relevant employees or third parties that reflects the need to:

1. Have a collaborative and co-operative approach towards resolving complaints, working with colleagues across teams and departments.
2. Take collective responsibility for any shortfalls identified through complaints, rather than blaming others.
3. Act within the professional standards for engaging with complaints as set by any relevant professional body.

Improvements have been made to the Council’s internal complaints resource on the Intranet. The page includes a copy of the following:

• Policy
• Forms
• Remedy guidance
• Template letters
• Differences between Service request and complaints

Training has been rolled out to staff to support the introduction of the new case management with the aim to enhance our customer experience, automate complaints processes, boost efficiency, and effectively address complaints for organisational learning and improvement.

A complaint must be defined as:

‘an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the landlord, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents.’ 

Section 4.3 of North Northamptonshire Council’s Housing Landlord Services Customer Complaints Policy sets out the following: 

‘A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the landlord, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents’.

Section 4.5 of the Housing Landlord Services Customer Complaints Policy sets out: 

‘Where a resident expresses dissatisfaction, they will be given the choice to make a complaint under this policy; the word complaint is not required to be used in the expression of dissatisfaction for it to be treated as a complaint’. 

Section 4.4 of the Housing Landlord Services Customer Complaints Policy sets out the following in relation to service requests: 

‘A service request is a request from a resident to the landlord requiring action to be taken to put something right. Service requests are not complaints, but will be recorded, monitored and reviewed regularly. Action to address a service request will not stop if a complaint is raised about the issue while action is still ongoing. You can contact us online, by telephone, in writing or in person to submit a service request.  If you submit a service request as a comment, compliment, or complaint it will be acknowledged and recorded and forwarded to the service for resolution in line with the policies and processes applicable to the service being requested’. 

Section 4.4 of the Housing Landlord Services Customer Complaints Policy states:

‘Action to address a service request will not stop if a complaint is raised about the issue while action is still ongoing’.

The Tenant Satisfaction Survey of a sample of tenants conducted in 2024/25 via telephone gave tenants the opportunity to express dissatisfaction. Any alerts arising from the Tenant Satisfaction were then followed up promptly. 

The Housing transactional surveys in place include a link to the Complaints Policy to ensure tenants are aware of how to complain.

Our complaints policy details the circumstances where we would and would not accept a complaint, and this is also available on our website.

If the complaint is not accepted, we will explain the reason for this.

A complaints policy must set out the circumstances in which a matter will not be considered as a complaint or escalated, and these circumstances must be fair and reasonable to residents. Acceptable exclusions include:

• The issue giving rise to the complaint occurred over twelve months ago.
• Legal proceedings have started. This is defined as details of the claim, such as the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim, having been filed at court.
• Matters that have previously been considered under the complaints policy. 

Section 2.3 sets out the matters which are out of scope of the Housing Landlord Services Complaints Policy. These include:

• Complaints about compensation
• Decisions subject to appeals
• Recharges fees for repairs
• Planning consultation responses
• Expressions of dissatisfaction made through a survey
• Matters under consideration by courts or tribunals
• Matters subject to legal action
• Matters for insurance claims
• Matters not related to the actions or decisions of the council or anybody acting on its behalf
• Political comments
• Matters raised by Members of Parliament (MPs) are responded to directly
• Matters raised by Councillors are responded to directly
• Matters raised by employees which fall under internal policy
• Matters subject to internal disciplinary or grievance procedures
• HR Recruitment complaints
• Complaints already concluded under this policy
• Complaints on matters which an Ombudsman Service has concluded no fault to the council

Section 4.9 of the Housing Landlord Services Customer Complaints Policy states that 

‘Comments, compliments, complaints may be made in a variety of ways to ensure accessibility. The quickest way is to submit this is on our website. You can also submit a complaint in writing, via email, by telephone or in person at our offices. We will ask if adjustments are required and if so, we will endeavour to ensure reasonable adjustments are made’.

Complaint levels indicate that the Corporate Complaint’s policy is easily accessible. 

This approach to viewing complaints volumes as a positive is also emphasised through the recent Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code training undertaken by staff.

The Housing Landlord Services Customer Complaints Policy will be published on the council’s website following the Audit and Governance Committee on 29 September. In the meantime, the Council’s Corporate Complaints Policy is available on the Council’s website.

Section 5.2 of the Landlord Services Customer Complaints Policy sets out the equality implications of the policy. The policy has been written in an inclusive manner to ensure ease of understanding by the widest possible audience. It has been written in plain English to ensure ease of translation. The council will ensure a variety of access methods are available to customers. The council will monitor and evaluate processes to ensure that they continue to be accessible to customers. The council will seek to accommodate reasonable adjustments and preferred methods of contact.

We publicise our complaints policy on our website.

A copy of the self-assessment and annual complaints and service improvement report are also published annually on the website.

Throughout the complaint handling process, including within template letters, Housing ombudsman details are provided.

Landlords must have a person or team assigned to take responsibility for complaint handling, including liaison with the Ombudsman and ensuring complaints are reported to the governing body (or equivalent). This Code will refer to that person or team as the ‘complaints officer’. This role may be in addition to other duties. 

The investigation and responses of complaints are dealt with within each service area, this helps to improve access to relevant staff and systems along with ensuring subject matter experts are involved in the complaint response.

At each stage of the complaints process, complaint handlers must:  

1. deal with complaints on their merits, act independently, and have an open mind;
2. give the resident a fair chance to set out their position;
3. take measures to address any actual or perceived conflict of interest; and
4. consider all relevant information and evidence carefully.  

The complaints process will always aim to:

1. deal with complaints on their merits, act independently, and have an open mind
2. give the resident a fair chance to set out their position
3. take measures to address any actual or perceived conflict of interest
   and
4. consider all relevant information and evidence carefully.  

The council is fully committed to treating people fairly and understands its statutory duties under the Equality Act (2010). The equality implications have been considered. The policy has positive implications for several protected groups. It has been written in an inclusive manner to ensure ease of understanding by the widest possible audience.  It has been written in plain English to ensure ease of translation. 

The council want to ensure services are accessible for residents to provide feedback. The council will ensure a variety of access methods are available to customers. The council will monitor and evaluate our processes to ensure that they continue to be accessible to residents. The council will seek to accommodate reasonable adjustments and preferred methods of contact. Where a complaint has equality implications, the equality team will be notified to advise accordingly.

All complaints are logged and status updated on this new system along with all relevant documentation attached to the case file for future reference. A clear audit trail is available for each complaint on the system.

Random checks will be undertaken to ensure that all complaints have a clear audit trail available for evidence purposes.

The council’s internal complaints resource on the Intranet includes a copy of the following:

• Policy
• Forms
• Remedy guidance
• Template letters
• Differences between Service request/complaints

The complaints handling toolkit also includes links to the Housing Ombudsman guidance.

Staff are also able to view the council’s corporate complaints system to allow ease of monitoring and follow up of complaints.

Yes

Landlords must confirm the following in writing to the resident at the completion of stage 1 in clear, plain language:  

1. the complaint stage;
2. the complaint definition;
3. the decision on the complaint;
4. the reasons for any decisions made;
5. the details of any remedy offered to put things right;
6. details of any outstanding actions; and
7. details of how to escalate the matter to stage 2 if the individual is not satisfied with the response. 

The Council Policy and Complaint Handling Process is in line with requirements of the Complaint Handling Code timescales.

A written response will be provided within 20 working days of the complaint being acknowledged.

The council will provide the resident with contact details for the Ombudsman Service and explain the right to escalate the complaint. 

Letter templates are used within the process to ensure this information is consistent and included within all responses.

A response will be provided to the resident when the answer is known and not when outstanding actions are completed. If there are outstanding actions, the resident will be provided with arrangements for updates on these outstanding actions. The resident will be provided with details of how to escalate the complaint should they not be satisfied with the response and you will be provided with the Housing Ombudsman’s contact details.

The Housing service is responsible for maintaining its learning and improvement outcomes; this will be subject to reporting and corporate scrutiny.

Landlords must confirm the following in writing to the resident at the completion of stage 2 in clear, plain language:  

1. the complaint stage;
2. the complaint definition;
3. the decision on the complaint;
4. the reasons for any decisions made;
5. the details of any remedy offered to put things right;
6. details of any outstanding actions; and
7. details of how to escalate the matter to the Ombudsman Service if the individual remains dissatisfied. 

Where something has gone wrong a landlord must acknowledge this and set out the actions it has already taken, or intends to take, to put things right. These can include: 

• Apologising;
• Acknowledging where things have gone wrong;
• Providing an explanation, assistance or reasons;
• Taking action if there has been delay;
• Reconsidering or changing a decision;
• Amending a record or adding a correction or addendum;
• Providing a financial remedy;
• Changing policies, procedures or practices. 

If something does go wrong, the council will:

• acknowledge
• apologise
• put things right

If our customer has experienced injustice or hardship, then a remedy will be considered including financial if applicable.

Landlords must produce an annual complaints performance and service improvement report for scrutiny and challenge, which must include: 

1. the annual self-assessment against this Code to ensure their complaint handling policy remains in line with its requirements.
2. a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the landlord’s complaint handling performance. This must also include a summary of the types of complaints the landlord has refused to accept;
3. any findings of non-compliance with this Code by the Ombudsman;
4. the service improvements made as a result of the learning from complaints;
5. any annual report about the landlord’s performance from the Ombudsman; and
6. any other relevant reports or publications produced by the Ombudsman in relation to the work of the landlord.  

The 2024/25 annual complaints performance and service improvement report is due to be presented at the council’s Audit and Governance Committee on 29 September 2025. 

The report meets the requirements set out in the Complaint Handling Code.

The 2023/24 annual complaints performance and service improvement report was presented at the council’s Executive Committee in September 2024 and is available on the council’s website.

The 2024/25 annual complaints performance and service improvement report is due to be presented at the council’s Audit and Governance Committee on 29 September 2025. 

The Corporate Performance team report on complaints to Executive on a regular basis. Power BI dashboard is currently being enhanced to help provide real-time information on housing complaints which can be shared with key stakeholders on a regular basis.

Learning from complaints will also be reported to the Tenant Advisory Panel and summarised through tenant newsletters and the annual report to tenants. This will ensure transparency and demonstrate how tenant feedback directly informs and drives service improvements.

Complaint information is regularly presented as part of the performance report to Executive. 

As a minimum, the MRC and the governing body (or equivalent) must receive: 

1. regular updates on the volume, categories and outcomes of complaints, alongside complaint handling performance;
2. regular reviews of issues and trends arising from complaint handling;   
3. regular updates on the outcomes of the Ombudsman’s investigations and progress made in complying with orders related to severe maladministration findings; and   
4. annual complaints performance and service improvement report. 

Landlords must have a standard objective in relation to complaint handling for all relevant employees or third parties that reflects the need to: 

1. have a collaborative and co-operative approach towards resolving complaints, working with colleagues across teams and departments;
2. take collective responsibility for any shortfalls identified through complaints, rather than blaming others; and
3. act within the professional standards for engaging with complaints as set by any relevant professional body. 

The council has a complaints page on the Intranet which includes a copy of the following:

• Policy
• Forms
• Remedy guidance
• Template letters
• Differences between Service request and complaints