Haringey Council has set out a two-year programme to improve how it handles complaints, with housing identified as the first priority after accounting for more than half of the complaints received across the authority in 2025/26.
The plan, covering 2026 to 2028, was considered by the council’s Cabinet on 20 October and announced the following day. It follows a year in which complaint volumes rose across most types, while the council says fewer cases were resolved within required timescales. The programme aims to strengthen early resolution, improve responses and make sure lessons from complaints lead to service changes.
Housing complaints at the centre
Housing makes up 53 per cent of complaints in the council’s 2025/26 annual report. The council says 86 per cent of complaints referred to the Housing Ombudsman were upheld in the preceding reporting year. Its public announcement describes a 9 per cent fall over one year in the proportion upheld, while still reporting an 85 per cent uphold rate. These figures are the council’s reported measures; the announcement does not explain the difference in the stated rates or specify whether the 9 per cent change is a relative fall or a percentage-point change. They should not be read as counts of all complaints received by the council.
The Cabinet report says nearly two thirds of Stage 1 complaints and more than half of Stage 2 complaints were upheld across services. It also says Haringey had, for a third consecutive year, the highest rate of complaints upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman per resident among councils in England. This is a rate, not the largest raw number of complaints, and the report presents it as the council’s comparison of its own performance data.
The plan sets longer-term targets rather than claiming that performance has already been fixed. It aims to bring Stage 2 escalations below 15 per cent, return the housing maladministration rate to or below the level for landlords of similar size and type by 2027/28, and reduce upheld findings from the local government ombudsman to the average for comparable authorities. For Stage 2 responses, the plan seeks year-on-year improvement against 20-day and 40-day timescales, with an ambition to exceed 80 per cent compliance in 2028/29.
Actions and accountability
Housing will be the first service area for targeted intervention. The plan calls for a dedicated housing complaints improvement action plan, reviews of Stage 2 cases to identify systemic issues, and continued work with services where performance needs attention. It also commits to monitoring escalation rates by service and sharing the information with senior council leadership and a feedback forum.
Other actions include developing staff training, recording learning commitments so they can be tracked, and creating an assurance approach around ombudsman decisions. Proposed elements include quarterly notes on lessons from decisions, examples of good practice and a log of recurring themes. The timetable sets out staff training roll-out from 2027/28 and a new assurance approach for autumn 2026, although that action’s timing is marked as to be confirmed.
The Cabinet report links complaint handling to the services that generate concerns, not just the speed of replies. It says the aim is for feedback and ombudsman findings to translate into sustained improvement in both case handling and underlying services. That distinction matters: a prompt response alone does not resolve a housing repair, correct an administrative error or prevent the same problem affecting another resident.
The council says it will report regularly on progress and expects measurable change to appear in its 2026/27 Feedback and Resolutions Report. The published plan includes targets extending beyond that report, so the next assessment will be an interim measure rather than a final verdict on the two-year programme.
For residents, the commitments now provide a basis for judging whether the authority is becoming easier to reach, quicker to respond and more consistent about acting on mistakes. The council’s own figures indicate that this remains a substantial challenge, particularly in housing. Progress will depend on whether the actions are delivered and whether improved complaint outcomes are accompanied by changes in the services behind them.
