Our response to the Housing Ombudsman’s report

We recognise and accept the findings of this report and will fully comply with its recommendations. We have welcomed this opportunity to work with the Housing Ombudsman Service to share our progress and gain further learning to take forward.

Getting things right for our customers is our top priority and we will use the learning from this process to drive further improvements and ensure the service our customers receive reflects this fundamental commitment.

We are pleased the Housing Ombudsman Service has recognised the positive changes we have made since the cases explored as part of its investigation. As the report outlines, we now have a much more robust complaints handling process and many of the challenges identified are now either resolved or are in the process of being resolved. Learning from complaints and sharing lessons with colleagues to avoid future cases is now a fundamental part of our work. We are working hard to improve our knowledge and information management and how we recognise, record and respond to vulnerabilities. We have also made significant improvements to our approach to compensation.

Many of the cases included in this investigation were more than two years old and many reflected the ongoing challenges we faced following our merger in April 2021, when we were prioritising improvements to building safety and bringing together our operational services. However, we accept the finding that we could, and should, have made some of these changes more quickly.

We have complied in full with all orders made by Housing Ombudsman Service and will now work alongside them as we comply with its recommendations and provide further assurance that we have a proactive, fair and robust approach to preventing and dealing with complaints.

We recognise we still need to improve, and our refreshed five-year strategy will see us deliver transformational projects to ensure we simplify and strengthen our organisation, invest in our homes and our people and, crucially, improve our customer offer.

Ruth Cooke, Chief Executive at GreenSquareAccord.