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RESOLVED that Cabinet
–

 

(a)   
endorses the Portfolio Holder for Housing and
Planning performing the role of Member Responsible for Complaints
for the purposes of the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
and associated guidance;

 

(b)   
in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman’s
Complaint Handling Code and in compliance with Cabinet’s
scrutiny and oversight requirements, formally receives the
Council’s Annual Complaints Performance and Service
Improvement Report, which includes the Annual Self-assessment
against the Code, as set out in Appendices A and B to this report
(A.5);

 

(c)   
formally provides its response to the Annual
Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report, for
publication as follows:-
 

“We thank Councillor Baker for presenting this
report to Cabinet today. We fully endorse everything that he has
said and warmly welcome the content of the report and its
recommendations.

 

As a Cabinet we recognise the importance of
providing good quality housing and that responding to complaints
forms an important part of that service.

 

We fully support and adopt the Housing
Ombudsman’s revised complaint handling code and are committed
to high quality complaint handling. It is important that we learn
from all complaints and provide a positive response.

 

We support Councillor Baker, as Housing Portfolio
Holder, taking on responsibility for housing complaints and he will
ensure that we as a Cabinet receive regular information and updates
on complaints, in particular, what they tell us about our housing
service, what we have learnt from them and what we have done to put
things right.

 

It is notable that the number of complaints received
has been increasing and that is something that will be explored
over the coming months to see what we can do better as part of a
programme of continuous improvement for our housing
service.”

 

(d)   
authorises Officers to publish both the Report and
the Cabinet’s response on the Council’s website within
the section relating to complaints and to submit the
self-assessment to the Housing Ombudsman by 30 June 2024;
and

 

(e)   notes that there is
to be a review in 2024/25 of the Council’s Corporate and
Housing Complaints procedures to deliver the expectations of the
now closely aligned Local Government & Social Care and Housing
Ombudsmen Codes.