The Government has launched an awareness raising campaign to support Social Housing Tenants in making complaints and bringing their landlord to account. The campaign’s theme is ‘Make Things Right’. It’s the latest commitment to come out of the Social Housing White paper, which was launched in November 2020 and set out a Charter of what for social housing residents should expect from their landlord in terms of being safe in their home, having their voices heard and being listened to. This guide Help complain to your landlord – Housing Ombudsman (housing-ombudsman.org.uk) explains how to make an effective complaint.
At GCH we recognise that we don’t always get things right so we welcome complaints as a learning opportunity and encourage our customers to report dissatisfaction to us so that we can put it right and improve our services for the future. GCH customers can make complaints through numerous channels including;
- Online, click here
- Email complaints@gch.co.uk
- By phone – 01452 424344
- By post (sent to GCH, Complaints Department, Railway House, Bruton Way, Gloucester, GL1 1DG)
- By private message on social media
- Face to face with a member of GCH staff.
When you report a complaint, please ensure you provide an overview of your complaint alongside your details including name, address and best contact method. We aim to acknowledge complaints within 5 working days and will respond within 10 working days. Where the complaint is particularly complex and a longer period is necessary we will agree an extension of up to an extra 10 working days with you.
The Housing Ombudsman Service published a new “Complaint Handling Code” in July 2020, which sets out good practice for dealing with and resolving complaints. Since the launch of this we have made our Complaints Process simpler with only two stages. Please note that complaints must first go through our complaints process before they can be referred to the Housing Ombudsman.
In 2019/20 we received 90 complaints and 44 compliments. 2 complaints were referred to the Housing Ombudsman with the outcome being that no further action was required by GCH.
