Kirklees Council Reports Fall in Social Housing Complaints, but Resident Satisfaction Remains Low

A recently published report states that progress has been made in several areas, but the Council admits that some aspects are still ‘not good enough’, leaving the door open for Housing Ombudsman claims.

The Kirklees Council area has a population of over 440,000 and includes the towns of Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Batley. According to the 2021 census, just over one in seven households (14.8%) were living in socially rented housing in the Kirklees area.

The Council’s Homes and Neighbourhoods Service publishes a Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report annually.

The report is followed by a Council meeting, where it is discussed, amended, and approved before being submitted to the Housing Ombudsman (an independent third party that works to strengthen internal complaints procedures and arbitrate between landlords and tenants who are in dispute). The meeting is also an opportunity for the Council to update its Complaints Handling and Redress Policies.

According to the Kirklees Council website, "complaints and compliments" can be reported to the Homes and Neighbourhoods team using an online form.

Social Housing Complaints

Within Kirklees Council, there is a two-stage complaints process – an initial stage involving the Customer Experience Team and a second stage involving a review by a Senior Manager if a Stage 1 response is unsatisfactory.

Figures for the 2024-2025 financial year show that Stage 1 complaints decreased by 54 to 772. Almost 83% of these were dealt with within the required 10 working days (up from just over 74% the previous year). Whilst these are improvements on the previous year, around 17% of claimants did not receive a timely response.

Around one-third of all Stage 1 complaints escalated to Stage 2 in 2024-2025, an 18% increase. Of the 250 cases investigated, only 68% received a response within the target time (20 days). This was down considerably from 75% the previous year, which the Council admitted was ‘not good enough’.

The Council acknowledges the importance of learning from its mistakes and now gathers more detailed and structured data on complaints. As a result, it has been able to offer training to over 400 staff members on complaint handling, implement a new policy on antisocial behaviour complaints, and plans to roll out a new computer system to help record and manage tenants’ specific issues.

The Council also measures tenant satisfaction through an annual questionnaire, which showed that only 42% of residents are satisfied with how Kirklees handled complaints.

Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023

When the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (‘the Act’) was introduced, local authority landlords became subject to stronger regulation by the Regulator of Social Housing. The aim was to protect tenants from failing landlords, provide them with improved access to redress, and ensure their complaints were handled promptly and fairly.

The Act also allowed the Housing Ombudsman to issue best practice to landlords through the Complaint Handling Code (‘the Code’). The Code promotes better tenant-landlord relationships and outlines best practices for landlords on how to handle tenant complaints effectively. The Code also explains the stages a complaints process should have, the timescales for responding, and what information must be provided in the landlord’s response.

While the Housing Ombudsman works to improve how social landlords operate and deal with complaints, it also operates a claims service, where tenants can bring their complaints for an independent assessment.

Housing Ombudsman Service Claims

The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent body set up to investigate complaints and resolve disputes involving tenants and leaseholders of social landlords, including local authorities, housing associations and co-operatives.

The Ombudsman can investigate housing management cases from residents – in other words, how their landlord has handled a complaint about the condition of their property, repairs and charges.
Complaints must first be raised and investigated by the landlord through their dedicated complaints procedure. If a tenant is unhappy with the outcome of that investigation or the landlord has failed to handle their complaint appropriately, the tenant can take their case to the Housing Ombudsman.

For Kirklees Council, ‘maladministration’ accounted for 65% of the cases escalated to the Housing Ombudsman in 2024-2025.

No individual case details were provided in the recent report, but maladministration is defined by the Ombudsman as ‘a failure which has adversely affected the resident’ and includes:

• Failure to respond to a complaint in time
• Failure to put things right
• Undermining the landlord/tenant relationship
• Failure to engage with the Ombudsman’s investigation

The Ombudsman has the power to order landlords to apologise, carry out works or pay financial compensation.

Some people prefer to instruct a solicitor to help them make a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service. The process can be complex and time-consuming, and having a legal representative by your side can be reassuring.

Premier Legal Assist can help

Premier Legal Assist works with a panel of specialist solicitors who have extensive experience in housing disrepair law in cases involving a wide range of Housing Associations and Local Authorities across the UK.

Our panel of solicitors are dedicated to our clients, ensuring the best possible outcome is achieved and support is provided every step of the way.

To find out if you may be eligible to make a housing disrepair claim, get in touch and fill out our contact form. We offer a free, no-obligation case assessment.