How we measure up

We want to let you know how we’re performing. We produce lots of reports and documents, but we know from your feedback that sometimes, you just want a simple overview. 

We constantly measure our performance against the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) Code, and we want to share with you how we’re measuring up for the period, 1st April 2023 – 31st March 2024.  

How do we measure up against the HOS compliance standards 

  • We received 2,734 complaints and closed 2,697 
  • 88% of the complaints were handled within the HOS agreed timescales.  
  • There weren’t any severe maladministration findings  
  • 22 of our complaints were looked at by the HOS, this compares to 12 complaints the year before 
  • From the 22 complaints that were reviewed, there were 44 points for us to act on. 24 of these 44 points raised maladministration 
  • This means that we had a maladministration rate of 55%, compared to 61% for the year before. The industry average is 72%. 

The number of complaints that we receive 

All housing associations across the country are receiving more complaints than they did the year before, it’s the same for us at Incommunities. 

There has been a big increase in roofing and damp complaints this year because of the terrible weather conditions during winter, but also because of the historic lack of investment in the homes that we provide – an issue that is now being dealt with.  

We are also making our complaints process much clearer and easy to access, which has also led to more complaints. 
 

The number of complaints that we receive

 

April 2022 – March 23 

April 2023 – March 24 

Stage 1 

2,209 

2,439 

Stage 2 

186 

295 

Overall 

2,395 

2,734 

The HOS figures for all housing associations across the country show that there has been a 91% increase in the number of complaints that are being referred to them. 

Self-assessment  

Every year we have to self-assess our complaints handling process against the Housing Ombudsman Code and this year six of our customers joined us and reviewed our procedures. Their findings were that we are compliant with the Housing Ombudsman Code. 

You can read the full self-assessment 

Member of Incommunities Staff

The lessons learnt and how we’ll act on them 

The main reason for complaints continues to be poor communication, customers not feeling listened to and the timescales of repairs. We want to change this, but it won’t happen overnight.  

Below are some of the steps that we have taken to make improvements and learn from customer’s feedback. 

  • Started to hold focus groups with customers to discuss complaints handling and satisfaction so that customers can help us to improve.   
  • Increased the size of the repairs and complaints teams, to help improve the services we provide.  
  • Damp & mould team took on extra contractors to look at what improvements need to be made.  
  • We’ve reminded all our colleagues that 24-hour notice should be given to customers for visits as per the tenancy agreement.  
  • Damp & mould training was delivered to all front-line staff.  
  • Reviewed the process for repairs and rescheduling, so that we can see where improvements need to be made.  
  • Reviewed the how we check and record customers vulnerabilities, to help us use this information when we’re planning repairs.  

Plus, lots more.

You can read the full complaints performance and service improvement report