1.         that as the Governing Body, the Cabinet approve the Housing Complaints Policy as set out at Appendix 2 to the submitted report; and

2.         that Cabinet note the Self-Assessment Report 2025 as set out at Appendix 1 to the submitted report.

To ensure that Torbay Council achieves best practice in complaint handling and providing a better service to tenants, through the approval of the Housing Complaints Policy.  This enables Torbay Council to demonstrate to the Housing Ombudsman that the handling of complaints is in line with the relevant code.

The alternative option would be to not submit an annual Self-Assessment, this option was discounted. Landlords that fail to provide the submission or resubmission by the relevant date may be issued a Complaint Handling Failure Notice. All notices would be shared with the Regulator of Social Housing. The Housing Ombudsman may also refer notices not resolved through action to the governing body.

This decision will come into force and may be implemented on 2 March 2026 unless the call-in procedure is triggered (as set out in the Standing Orders in relation to Overview and Scrutiny).

The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (the Act) empowered the Housing Ombudsman to issue a code of practice about the procedures members of the Scheme should have in place for considering complaints. It also placed a duty on the Ombudsman to monitor compliance with a code of practice that it has issued. The statutory Code came into effect from 1 April 2024 and their duty to monitor compliance commenced at the same time.

The Housing Ombudsman Self-Assessment Form should be completed by the complaints officer and it must be reviewed and approved by the landlord’s governing body at least annually. Once approved, landlords must publish the self-assessment as part of the annual complaint’s performance and service improvement report on their website. The governing body’s response to the report must be published alongside this.

At the Cabinet meeting, Councillor Tyerman proposed and Councillor David Thomas seconded a motion that was agreed unanimously, as set out above.

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