Complaints and Compliments
In 2023/24, we received 413 complaints, up from 396 in 2022/23. Of these, 57% were from general needs customers. The rise in complaints is a trend seen across social housing, partly due to the Housing Ombudsman’s new powers and closer relationship with the Regulator.
Compensation
In 2023/24, we paid out £16,248.66 in compensation, compared to £6,718.57 in the previous year.
Compensation 2023-24
The Property Services team accounted for 55% of all complaints.
were related to Housing Services.
involved the Finance, Rent, and Income teams.
Complaints
Complaints by Tenure Type
Complaints By Department
Most complaints came from customers aged 61-80 (23%) and 31-40 (17%).
Complaints by Age
In 2023/24, 62% of complaints were resolved at Stage 1, while only 8% were escalated to Stage 2. 29% of complaints were from customers who also contacted their MP or Councillor.
Complaint by Stage
What we need to improve
The most common cause of complaints (51%) was communication. Of these, 47% were related to Property Services and 22% to Resident Services.
Complaints by Theme
From a review of your complaints, we need to improve in the following areas:
- Not keeping customers informed.
- Failing to update customers on repairs or ongoing issues, forcing them to follow up.
- Contractors attending without the necessary job information.
- Poor communication between departments at Gateway, leading to disjointed working efforts.
Another concern, accounting for 15% of complaints, was not following through on promised actions, especially at Stage 1 or after an MP/Councillor enquiry.
We’ve implemented measures to improve our communication with customers and ensure we complete our agreed actions.
What we are doing right
In 2023/24, we received 413 complaints, up from 396 in 2022/23. Of these, 57% were from general needs customers. The rise in complaints is a trend seen across social housing, partly due to the Housing Ombudsman’s new powers and closer relationship with the Regulator.
In 2023/24, we began tracking compliments through our new customer feedback platform, Gateway Voice. We received positive feedback for the work of our in-house repairs team and other customer-facing colleagues. We received almost 400 compliments throughout the year.