Annual complaints handling and service improvement report
We’re working hard to ensure our homes and services meet customer expectations. When things don’t, we’re committed to listening, learning, and acting quickly to put things right. We know how important it is to honour the commitments we make to our customers and keep customers regularly updated because staying informed builds trust and confidence that we’re taking positive action to resolve complaints.
Learning from complaints is so important and can be really transformative to the customer experience. Our complaints handling approach is not just reactive - it’s proactive, inclusive, and focused on continuous improvement. By listening carefully and acting decisively, we’re building a culture where feedback drives real change.
We review our complaint policy and processes annually and ensure we meet the requirements as set out in the Housing Ombudsman Scheme and accompanying code which became statutory on 1 April 2024.
Our annual self-assessment of our complaint service against the Housing Ombudsman code has been published on our website and we’re proud to remain compliant in all areas.
"I’m proud to Chair VIVID’s Customer Service Committee - an incredible opportunity to work closely with both our customers and colleagues to shape services that truly meet people’s needs. For us, complaints are so much more than issues to resolve - they’re valuable insights that help us continually improve. Our approach to complaints handling is rooted in transparency, accountability, and continuous learning. The changes we’ve made over the past year reflect this commitment, but we know we have much more to do."
- Jo Moran, Chair of Customer Service Committee
Complaints resolution 2024-25
complaints resolved overall
stage 1 complaints resolved
stage 2 complaints resolved
complaints resolved within targets
Complaint themes
We group complaints and look into what’s causing them, so we can see which parts of our service aren’t meeting expectations. That way, we can focus on making things better where it really matters.
This year’s top 3 themes were:
Themes of resolved complaints
standard of work
customer service
appointments
The rest were quality of home (7.79%), neighbourhoods (7.43%), tenancy (3.83%)
Ombudsman performance summary and learnings
When we’re not able to fully resolve a complaint to a customer’s satisfaction, they have the option to contact the Ombudsman — and we work closely with them to help bring things to a fair conclusion. The chart below shows how many customers have taken their complaint to the Ombudsman. 'Enquiries' are cases where our complaints process hasn’t been completed yet, so they’re referred back to us. 'Referrals' are cases where we’ve already given our final response at Stage 2, but our customer still isn’t satisfied with the outcome and has asked the Ombudsman to review how we handled the complaint.
● Enquiries ● Referrals
April 24
May 24
June 24
July 24
August 24
September 24
October 24
November 24
December 24
January 25
February 25
March 25
Over the year to 31 March 2025, we received a total of 3,421 complaints. The Housing Ombudsman carried out an independent investigation of 43 cases.
Each case will receive a determination by them and can have multiple outcomes which they refer to as findings. Of the cases reviewed, 8 were outside the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman, 18 cases were found to have no maladministration (we acted reasonably to resolve), there were 19 occasions of service failure and 21 occasions of maladministration.
We received no findings of severe maladministration. We recognised where we fell short and offered reasonable redress in 16 additional occasions.
Redress
Maladministration
Service failure
Outside jurisdiction
No maladministration
Determination and compliance
Findings of non-compliance with the code
The Ombudsman can issue orders for non-compliance with the code called Complaint Handling Failure Orders (CHFOs). We have no findings of non-compliance with the code.
HOS performance report
Each year, the Housing Ombudsman publishes a summary of our performance for complaint cases escalated to them and how we compare to other landlords. The most recent report is from the previous year (April 23 - March 24) and our overall maladministration rate is the same as the national average rate at 73%. Click the button below to see our comparison with other landlords for each outcome, and to see the full report.
Learning from complaints
We’re always looking to learn and improve our services, and the feedback we get from customers and the Ombudsman plays a big part in that. Every quarter, we share what we’ve learned - and the changes we’ve made - with our customer scrutiny panel, VIVID Impact. We also hold regular feedback sessions: twice a year with staff and monthly insight meetings where we dive into what customers are telling us through complaints. These conversations help us make sure we’re really listening and adapting our services to better meet customer needs. And starting this year, we’ll be inviting customers to join these sessions too - so we can keep learning, together. Some of the initiatives we put in place last year were:
- Created a new ‘defect management’ process to enable us to work with developers to resolve defects on new build properties quickly for our customers
- Launched a project to further improve how we work with managing agents focusing on standardising procedures for all managing agents we work with
- Equipped our ‘Empty Homes’ staff with damp meters so properties can be assessed for any damp issues ahead of customers moving in
- Introduced a robust tracking system to monitor commitments made within complaint resolutions
- Restructured our service charge and leasehold service to ensure cases are prioritised and responded to by specialist staff. This involved the introduction of ‘pre-consultation’ meetings with leaseholders ahead of section 20 notices to ensure customers had opportunity to feed into the process
- Improved our process around ‘management moves’ so customers are updated and aware of next steps
- Brought our grounds maintenance service ‘in house’ to enable us to consistently meet the standards we expect
- Updated our sales website so its clearer for customers how long each stage of our sales process takes
- Worked with customers to redesign and co-create our Service Standards to ensure we’re clear about our service offering and are meeting the needs of our customer base
- Updated our online video library including what to expect from your neighbourhood officer, what to expect from planned communal decorations and advice on how to complete basic repairs tasks around the home
- Implemented a triage process for damp and mould cases so high-risk cases can be prioritised
- Developed a module within our housing management system to ensure we capture reasonable adjustments required for service delivery, so we adapt our services to meet customer need
- Enhanced our lettings process to raise awareness of fire safety remedial actions to enable customer choice
- Introduced a Quality Team to ensure accountability for learning from complaints and improving services
- Updated our moving in and moving out guidance for customers so our service standards are clear
- Provided training for all staff to make sure they understand our obligations and responsibilities towards vulnerable and disabled residents under the Equality Act 2010
- Updated our ‘memorandum of sales’ for new build homes so customers are clear on responsibility of gifted items
- Introduced a pest management responsibility document to support with providing consistent support and advice to our customers regarding pests in their home
- Completed a customer review of complaints information on our website, to ensure how to make a complaint and how we're performing is accessible and easy to understand
- Made the Housing Ombudsman’s complaints handling training mandatory for all complaint handling staff with plans to further roll out to all staff
Spotlight reports
The Housing Ombudsman issues ‘spotlight reports’ which are designed to focus on an area of service provision where they see a high level of landlord failure. This sets out learning and recommendations to avoid further complaints or service failure and provide clarity to customers about their rights.
This year, we reassessed against the spotlight report on noise complaints – time to be heard - to see how we can keep improving our response to household noise issues. We’ve put together a strong action plan to help us build on what we’re already doing and work towards meeting the report’s recommendations.
We also welcomed the Housing Ombudsman service to visit us so we could contribute to their next spotlight report on responsive repairs. During their time with us, they joined our operatives, our complaints team, contact centre colleagues and management team. We received positive feedback on what we’d achieved already with our Repairs Development Plan, and our plans for the future as we continually strive to improve services.
The 'Spotlight report on repairs and maintenance – repairing trust' has now been published. We have assessed our services against the report and are considering how we can make further improvements to our repairs service.
Customer influence
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved with customers this year since the launch of our Customer Influence Strategy, to ensure our customers are influencing our services and our decisions as we recognise the need to respond quickly to changing needs and expectations. Our strategy enables us to achieve our corporate plan and vision for ‘more homes, bright futures’, and our ambition that customers are our strongest advocates building trust, pride and impact.
We’ve created a delivery plan to support our strategy, making sure the data we hold is reliable and helps us spot priorities and areas for improvement. For year 2, our focus is on hearing from as many customers as possible - especially those who don’t usually get in touch. We want to make sure everyone has a voice and can help shape the services they use.
We’re very proud to have been awarded our Tpas accreditation in February 2024, which demonstrates our commitment to working together with our customers to listen, understand, learn and act on their feedback. Aimed to improve the services we deliver and demonstrate where our customers voices have influenced change. Ultimately, it’s about being transparent, effective and demonstrates how customer influence is embedded within our culture.
We’ll be reviewing the accessibility of this annual complaints report and our complaints information with our customers and will publish our findings here.
Customers can also find out more about their rights and the services we're required to provide here.
