Council housing handbook

Complaints, feedback and procedures

Chapter 10: Complaints, feedback and procedures

In this section:

Making a complaint

If we're not delivering our housing services to you properly, you have the right to complain. We will do our best to put things right and prevent them happening again.

We have a tenant complaints panel that are trained to hear a complaint when the tenant feels that it has not been answered satisfactorily.

There are two steps before the tenant complaints panel becomes involved:

Stage 1 - Local resolution

You initially make a complaint to the council. The best way to do this is via the website: Complaints and feedback 

The complaint will initially be handled by a senior member of the Housing team and you will usually receive a response in ten working days.

Stage 2 - Referral to Housing service area manager

If you are not happy with the response you receive, you can escalate your complaint to the service area manager for Housing. They will investigate and respond within 25 working days.

Taking a complaint further

If you are still not satisfied that your complaint has been resolved, you have two options:

  1. Contact the tenant complaints panel
  2. Wait a further eight weeks and contact the Housing Ombudsman to investigate

If you choose to go to the complaints panel, they will gather evidence from you and the council to gain an understanding of the problem. The tenant and officer involved will then be invited to a meeting where the complaints panel will hear the viewpoints of both sides and make a decision.

If you are still not satisfied you then have the option to contact the Housing Ombudsman. You can contact them via the Housing Ombudsman website, or:

The Housing Ombudsman website also contains a useful series of short videos on making a complaint about council housing:

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Giving feedback

Besides complaints, we want to hear when we've done something well, and get your general feedback about improving our services. See: Complaints and feedback

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Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities. It sets out some exemptions from that right, and imposes a number of other obligations on public authorities.

See the webpage: Make a Freedom of Information request

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Your privacy

Our Privacy Notice helps you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and share it, and how you can update, manage, and delete it. You can read the full notice on our website: Housing services Privacy Notice

See the webpage: Make a Subject Access Request to see your personal information

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