4. Compliance with the Complaint Handling Code - Communication
4.1 Are residents kept informed and updated during the complaints process?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
Yes. Residents are sent confirmation that their complaint has been received and may be contacted if further information or clarification is required.
For complicated complaints, we'll inform the complainant if we require additional time to investigate and resolve their complaint. However, we aim to resolve complaints as quickly as possible and the authority does not generally provide ongoing updates on the progress of their complaint.
4.2 Are residents informed of the landlord’s position and given a chance to respond and challenge any area of dispute before the final decision?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
No. Residents are not informed of the landlord’s position before the response is set. This is in line with guidance from the Local Government Ombudsman.
If the resident isn't satisfied with the response, details are provided on how to escalate their complaint.
4.3 Are all complaints acknowledged and logged within 5 days?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
Yes. Brighton & Hove City Council’s complaint policy requires that an acknowledgement of any complaint is sent within 2 working days.
4.4 Are residents advised of how to escalate at the end of each stage?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
Yes.
4.5 What proportion of complaints are resolved at stage 1?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
89.8% of stage 1 complaints do not escalate to stage 2.
4.6 What proportion of complaints are resolved at stage 2?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
Housing Ombudsman performance data tells us that 5 cases (from 52 stage 2s for Housing teams) were considered in 2021/2022.
The assumption is that those who did not escalate their cases considered the matter to be resolved, therefore 90% of those cases escalated to stage 2 were resolved.
4.7 What proportion of complaint responses are sent within Code timescales?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
79% of stage 1 complaints were responded to within 10 working days.
76% of stage 2 complaints were responded to within 20 working days.
Data for the extension timescales isn’t currently available but will be provided in future years.
4.8 Where timescales have been extended did we have good reason?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
Yes.
4.9 Where timescales have been extended did we keep the resident informed?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
Yes.
4.10 What proportion of complaints do we resolve to residents’ satisfaction?
Brighton & Hove City Council response:
Brighton & Hove City Council do not collect feedback from residents on the handling of complaints. Therefore, we're unable to provide any meaningful data on whether they are resolved to residents’ satisfaction.