The Government's Social Housing
White Paper promised to run an awareness campaign so that social
housing residents know their rights to complain and are confident
in navigating their routes to complain and are aware of how to
escalate their complaints to get redress.
The national campaign under the
headline 'Make Things Right' will run adverts on digital and social
media channels, as well as music streaming sites, to raise
awareness of the complaints process and barriers to these being
progressed.
Launching the campaign, Housing Minister Eddie
Hughes said:
"The Charter for Social Housing Residents is clear that all
social housing residents should receive a good service
and reassurance that if you speak up, then things will be put
right.
While most landlords work hard to put things right when they
go wrong, we want to ensure that all residents know how to raise
complaints if they have to, and how to approach the Housing
Ombudsman to escalate their concern.
That is why we are launching this new campaign to ensure
those living in the 4 million social homes across England know how
to access the complaints process to provide a greater voice for
residents and refocus the sector on its social mission."
The Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local Government figures say that 59% of issues
raised by social housing residents do not make it through as
official complaints to the landlords, despite residents being
unhappy with the initial responses received - with 35% of
residents listing concerns around retaliation by landlords and
neighbours as a reason for not raising an issue.
The Government have set up a
special campaign website with more information
for tenants and residents on how to complain.
ARCH Chief Executive John
Bibby comments:
"Councils want all residents, regardless of tenure, to have
the benefit of a decent home which they are proud to live in and it
is important that if things go wrong they know their rights to
raise a complaint with their landlord and to have that complaint
dealt with quickly and fairly, and where necessary matters put
right.
"It would have been helpful for social landlords to have had
advance notice of when the campaign was being launched to enable
our member councils to supplement the national campaign with
information about their complaints procedures".