Complaints performance
We take all complaints that we receive seriously and have put a lot of work into making our process fair and easy to follow
Annual complaints and service improvement report
We’re dedicated to openness and transparency with our customers. In line with the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) Complaint Handling Code, this report provides an overview of Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints we’ve received during 2025/26, including case details that were escalated to the HOS.
Customer Voice and learning from complaints
Through our complaints process, customers can hold us to account. Complaints and lessons learned enable us to focus on getting things right first time, understanding customers better and using what they tell us to improve our services.
Complaints learning is one of the mechanisms by which we understand, and act upon, the customer voice. Effective complaint handling is an important mechanism for customers to be able to hold their landlords to account when things go wrong. Under the UK Government’s Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, landlords must have a clear approach to complaints so that customers can raise their concerns and when they do, landlords listen to what they are being told, have effective processes for handling the complaint, and act promptly to put things right.
The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS)
The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) Complaint Handling Code came into effect from 1 April 2024. Besides handling complaints day-to-day, the code also says landlords need to put together a yearly report on complaints and how they’re improving their services. This report should be shared on their websites and sent to the HOS at least once a year. It should include:
- The annual self-assessment against the Code
- An analysis of complaints handling performance
- Any times the HOS found the landlord didn’t follow the Code
- Improvements the landlord has made based on what they’ve learned from complaints
- What the landlord has done in response to any yearly performance reports from the HOS
- Any steps taken after other relevant reports or publications from the HOS about the landlord’s work
- The governing body’s response to the report
Summary of complaints data
| Summary of complaints data | Total complaints received | Percentage of complaints withdrawn (%) | Total Stage 1 complaints investigated | Total Stage 2 complaints investigated |
| 2025/26 | 1,427 | 11% | 1,039 | 226 |
| 2024/25 | 1,805 | 13% | 1,381 | 187 |
| Variance | 21% decrease | 2% decrease | 26% decrease | 21% increase |
Stage 1 complaints
Total complaints investigated
2025/26
2024/25
Average weekly complaints requiring a full investigation
2025/26
2024/25
Highest volume of complaints
Repairs service
Top 3 areas with the most complaints
Joinery
Neighbourhoods
Assets
| Repairs service complaints area | Total complaints received | Jobs completed/No. of social homes/No. of homes |
| Joinery | 141 | 16,418 (Jobs completed) |
| Neighbourhoods | 129 | 11,205 (No. of social homes) |
| Assets | 113 | 12,827 (No. of homes) |
Stage 1 complaints completed on time
2025/26
2024/25
| 2025/26 | 2024/25 | |
| Complaints raised | 1,191 | 1,610 |
| Complaints withdrawn | 152 | 226 |
| Complaints responded to | 1,039 | 1,381 |
| Complaints upheld | 539 | 780 |
| Complaints part upheld | 206 | 300 |
| Complaints not upheld | 294 | 301 |
In 2025/26, we:
- Dealt with 137 complaint referrals as service requests
- Declined 23 referrals as complaints due to the same issue already being investigated via the complaints process and/or an issue being raised by a non-customer.
Customers with multiple complaints
- 155 customers - the majority of these customers raised two complaints each
- 19 customers raised 4+ complaints each
Repeated complaints can be an indicator of lost trust and/or lack of support. As such we carry out in person tenancy experience visits to ensure customers can meet their Neighbourhood Officer, and the Neighbourhood Officer can effectively support the customer. To date we have carried out over 10.7k of these visits.
Complaint responses
Our Tenant Satisfaction Measure for stage one complaints handled on time in 2025/26 was 100% compared to 97.4% in 2024/25 which demonstrates our commitment to customers to resolve their issues and provide timely responses, evidencing a positive and pro-active complaints culture across the business.
Customers have told us they value speed of response and speed of resolution. As such we committed to reducing extensions and providing faster responses. In 2025/26 our average response time was 11.03 working days compared to 12.74 in 2024/25.
Stage 2 complaints
Total complaints investigated
2025/26
2024/25
Highest volume of Stage 2 escalations
Repairs service
The main themes for escalation were delays in resolution, repeat service failures, and perceived poor communication indicating that customers were often required to chase for updates or experienced multiple unsuccessful attempts to resolve issues at stage one before escalation.
| Outcome | Cases 2025/26 | Cases 2024/25 |
| Upheld | 123 (52%) | 119 (64%) |
| Part upheld | 51 (22%) | 37 (20%) |
| Not upheld | 52 (22%) | 31 (16%) |
| Withdrawn | 10 (4%) | 11 (5.5%) |
Stage 2 complaints completed on time
2025/26
2024/25
During 2025/26 we investigated 226 Stage 2 complaints (an escalation rate of 21.5%) compared to 2024/25 when 187 were investigated (an escalation rate of 13.5%). One Manchester offer customers a 12 month period in which to escalate a complaint with 53% of escalations received within 4 weeks of a stage one response and 47% between 4 weeks and 12 months.
Complaint demographics
White British and Black/Black British African customers are proportionally more satisfied, reflecting improvements in repairs services and a reduction in related complaints. Customers with unrecorded ethnicity data remain the least satisfied group; most are commercial customers (leaseholders, shared owners and market renters).
The main cause of commercial complaints is a perceived lack of action. In response, vacancies have been filled and mailbox processes streamlined. The location of many commercial properties near the city centre also contributes to complaints about rough sleeping, parking, anti-social behaviour (ASB) and major works programmes in high-rise buildings.
Highest number of complaints by area
Central
East
South
Central continues to have the highest proportion of complaints, accounting for 44% of stage one complaints despite representing 34% of stock. This reflects a higher concentration of complex buildings and significant colleague turnover in recent years. To address this, additional neighbourhood resource has been recruited to reduce patch sizes, alongside the introduction of quarterly resident meetings in high-rise blocks.
Hulme Park has the highest number of complaints in 2025/26, with 54 received compared to 45 last year. The main issues relate to communal services, communication and work programmes, all of which are being addressed through wider complaint improvement activity.
Housing Ombudsman service cases
Customers can escalate to the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) if they feel that our complaints process has been exhausted and they remain dissatisfied.
Housing Ombudsman investigations concluded
2025/26
2024/25
Continuous improvement and learning from complaints
The Customer Experience team is structured to ensure complaints are managed effectively and in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, while maintaining a strong focus on learning and customer engagement.
Complaints learning sessions and customer journey mapping have taken place throughout the year, with resulting service improvements reported to the Leadership Team, Customers and Communities Committee, and Board.
We have implemented 32 of 34 recommendations from our Customer Scrutiny Panel, including:
- an easy-read complaints policy
- enhanced colleague training
- post-complaint surveys
- early resolution measures
To further improve customer understanding of the complaints process, a communications campaign will launch in Q1 2026/27.
In September 2025, we established a Customer Complaints & Performance Group to strengthen customer oversight. The group has already helped improve the tone and clarity of ‘not upheld’ outcome letters, with revised versions being introduced from April 2026.
Complaints learning has led to a range of tactical and longer-term service improvements. To maintain focus on performance, complaint handling updates are shared weekly with complaint handlers and the Leadership Team, and quarterly with the Customers and Communities Committee and Board. Ongoing engagement with the MRC provides additional oversight and accountability.
Following successful customer learning sessions on gas servicing and stock condition surveys, complaints learning will become a regular feature of the Customer Voice Framework in 2026/27, supporting ongoing insight gathering and co-designed service improvements.