"We must do better" Gosport pledges to handle complaints about repairs and anti-social behaviour from tenants better
Gosport Borough Council has pledged to do better after scoring poorly in handling complaints from its social housing tenants, especially repairs and anti-social behaviour.
Members at a housing board meeting on November 19 heard that, as a landlord, its approach to dealing with complaints earned it its lowest score at 40 per cent satisfaction. The board approved measures suggested by the acting head of the Housing Service, Hayley McKay, to improve the situation.
The officer report said: “Since April 2024, The Housing Regulator insists that local authorities providing social housing publish an annual report to enable the promotion of a viable, efficient and well governed housing sector.
“Failure to comply may lead to intervention and enforcement action, including penalties against the council.”
Mrs McKay said there will be an immediate creation of a residents’ scrutiny panel, trained by a national company, the Tenant Participation Advisory Service. The panel will learn how to hold landlords to account and help review communication around repairs.
The latest Tenant Perception Survey, published in June, said tenants were unhappy with how long repairs took. Mrs McKay added that there was dissatisfaction when repairs had to be redone.
The number of complaints due to anti-social behaviour cases had doubled to nearly 62 per cent from 27 per cent in 2023. Despite those results, the council scored 85 per cent overall satisfaction in dealing with its housing-related complaints.
Mrs McKay said that while tenant satisfaction with communal areas was only 73 per cent, members agreed it was not acceptable, as these spaces are part of people’s homes. Members raised concerns over 126 homes that were recorded as “non-decent”.
Mrs McKay said the council had struggled to recruit surveyors and staff, but there were now six surveyors at the council. A complaints officer within the housing team will start from November.
External contractors would be trained and used to improve the housing repairs service, update the non-decent homes and make them safe, she said. The council has over 3,000 homes, but the number of people who took part in the survey dropped from 840 in 2023 to 629 this year.