Housing Complaints and Compliments

If you wish to provide some feedback or to make a complaint you can do this via:

◾Council’s website: http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/council/about-council/customer-feedback-help-us-get-it-right

◾Email: ceoformalenquiries@cannockchasedc.gov.uk

◾Letter: Cannock Chase Council, PO Box 28, Civic Centre, Beecroft Road, Cannock, Staffordshire WS11 1BG                     

◾Telephone: 01543 462621

 

For more information you can contact the Service Improvement Team at serviceimprovements@cannockchasedc.gov.uk or via the dedicated Housing complaints email address housingformalenquiries@cannockchasedc.gov.uk 

As a social housing provider the Council is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Service. The Housing Ombudsman Service (the Ombudsman) is set up by law to look at complaints about housing organisations that are registered with them. The Ombudsman resolve disputes involving tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (housing associations and local authorities).

The Ombudsman considers complaints using dispute resolution principles, and encourage landlords and residents to use these principles so they can resolve complaints together at the earliest possible opportunity. 

You can bring a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service for investigation if you have completed the Council’s complaint process (you have received our final stage 2 response) and the issues have not been resolved.   

The Housing Ombudsman can also help if the Council is not responding to a complaint you made (however we do endeavour to respond to all complaints within the set timescales). 

Their details are as follows:
Website: https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/ 
Telephone: 0300 111 3000.

The majority of complaints will fall under the jurisdiction of the Housing Ombudsman, however some housing-related complaints (around allocations and homelessness) fall under the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO). The LGO are an independent service run by Central Government to make sure that Councils provide the required standard of service to their customers. The Ombudsman can investigate complaints about how the Council has done something, but they cannot question what has been done simply because someone did not agree with it.

Their details are as follows: 
Website: www.lgo.org.uk  
Telephone: 0300 061 0614

There may be some issues that need referring to the LGO or the Housing Ombudsman, or jointly considered by the two Ombudsman. We will advise you which Ombudsman to go to when you receive our final Stage 2 response. Summaries of the complaints each deal with are found on their webpages: 

LGO - www.lgo.org.uk/make-a-complaint/fact-sheets/housing/which-ombudsman-for-complaints-about-social-housing   

Housing Ombudsman - www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/useful-tools/fact-sheets/which-ombudsman-for-social-housing-complaints/ 

Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code

The Complaint Handling Code became statutory on 1 April 2024, meaning that social landlords are obliged by law to follow its requirements. The Code aims to achieve best practice in complaint handling and ultimately to provide a better service to residents.

As part of the Code, the Council was required to produce and publish an annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, which included a self-assessment against the code. These documents can be viewed below.

Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report
Complaint Handling Code Self Assessment
Council Response to the Annual Complaints Report and Self Assessment
Housing (HRA) Compensation Policy

The Housing Ombudsman makes clear that a landlord’s complaint handling is an opportunity to rebuild trust and improve relationships with residents. Landlords should ensure that the focus of its complaint handling remains on resolving issues and providing remedies where things have gone wrong.  Landlords should be open and transparent acknowledging where things have gone wrong, setting out the actions it has already taken or intends to take to put things right.
This could 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

The Compensation Policy sets out the approach taken by Housing Services in assessing the circumstances, and, if required, the amount payable for compensation, including financial remedy, to which tenants and leaseholders are entitled.

In the majority of cases where Housing Services identifies a fault or failing, an apology, alongside rectification of the issue which caused the complaint to be made, will be entirely sufficient. However, there may be some cases where the Council considers it appropriate to offer compensation in addition.

 

HRA Compensation Policy
Last Updated:

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