More than half the complaints made about Crawley Homes are not dealt with quickly enough at the first stage, new figures show

Figures shared with borough councillors show that, in 2023/24, 378 complaints were made by or on behalf of tenants and leaseholders.

Of those, only 48 per cent were resolved within the required ten working days at the first stage.

But 92% of the 48 complaints which were escalated to the second stage were resolved within the required 20 working days.

A report to the cabinet and the overview & scrutiny commission said the vast majority of the complaints – 88% – were about repairs.

This is little wonder given that 31,385 repair jobs were completed that financial year.

Ian Irvine, cabinet member for housing, said: “Obviously there is room for improvement.”

He added: “Crawley Homes is an organisation and any organisation is going to get complaints. We are open, we are responsive and this report will instruct our work for the months to come.”

This was the first complaints report to be put to councillors since the Housing Ombudsman’s complaints handling code became law in April.

The code requires authorities to scrutinise, approve, and respond to an annual complaints report while also receiving regular updates on the situation.

Cabinet members agreed that a quarterly updates report would be best.

One issue raised by Chris Mullins, cabinet member for leisure & well-being, was the need for sensitivity when asking people living in large homes whether they would be willing to down-size.

Mr Irvine said he was sorry if anyone had ever felt that they were not being treated fairly, adding that that ‘shouldn’t have happened’.

As well as the complaints report, members of the overview & scrutiny commission discussed the results of the first Crawley Homes’ Tenant Satisfaction Measures survey, which was carried out in February and March.

Of more than 9,000 tenants, leaseholders and shared owners who took part, 75% said they were satisfied with the service provided, while 14% were dissatisfied and 11% neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

Residents in Furnace Green, Three Bridges and Maidenbower were happiest, with Gossops Green, Ifield and Langley Green the least satisfied.

Repairs were high on the list of comments made to the research team.

One said: “Repairs take so long. They should let us know how long it will take. You are put in a queue and there is no follow up or nothing.”

Another said: “Our flat has mould issues and rooms are quite small too. No garden, it’s not easy to live with small children.”