Reporting Information
The charts and graph above illustrate the trend of the 34 complaints handled during 2024-2025. Complaints increased by 17 (a 100% increase) from the prior year. This followed changes in the Complaint Handling Code in April 2024.
There were 31 (91.1%) Stage 1 complaints, up by 20 (181.8% increase) on the prior year. There was a spike in complaints at the start of the year, gradually reducing as the year went on. Complaints were mainly driven by issues with communication associated the repairs.
There were 3 (8.8%) Stage 2 complaints, down 3 on prior year, seeing an overall reduction of 50%. The reason for escalations were due to repair timescales, where customers felt works were still outstanding after raising an initial complaint.
Complaints per 1,000 homes tracked above the national median provided by House mark; on average we received 9.2 per month. This equated to 100 stage 1 complaints per 1000 homes across the year.
Per 1000 homes 9.7 stage 2 escalated complaints were received in the year.
We upheld or partly upheld 85.3% Stage 1 and 100% Stage 2 complaints. Last year, we upheld or partially upheld 100% Stage 1 and 66.7% Stage 2 complaints.
Analysis of complaints
Communications in relation to the repairs service represented 29.4% of all complaints and was consistently the most common reason for complaint each quarter. This was also the area with the highest increase in percentage of complaints from last year (with an increase of 150%)
Timescales around delivering repairs was the second most common reason for complaint at 20.6%, with a decrease from last year’s percentage of 35.3%
Policy/process represented 17.6% of complaints, and the volume doubled from 3 last year to 6 this year.
Quality of work represented 11.8% of complaints. Last year, there were no complaints related to the quality of work.
Complaints relating to colleague behaviour was 2.9%, which is 3% lower than the percentage of these types of complaints last year.
Positively, ‘quality of service complaints’ decreased to 8.8%, from 17.6% in the previous year.
2 complaints (5.9%) in the year related to ASB; none were received in 2023/24.
We received 1 complaint relating to damage caused by an outstanding repair which escalated to stage 2. This again was an increase from the previous year where there were none.
We asked 96 customers who participated in our annual survey, ‘How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with Karbon’s approach to complaints handling?’ We found 39.1% were satisfied, 52.2% were dissatisfied and 8.7% were neither. Clearly approach to handling complaints is an area for improvement.
Service Improvements
Following a review, looking at the cause of complaints, we can report service improvements, both current and planned, as follows:
- Throughout the year, the time it took to respond to a routine repair improved significantly, and by the end of the reporting period 85.6% of jobs were completed to timescale, which is above the housing sector median, according to HouseMark Pulse data (April, 2025). Karbon reported completion of an additional 6000 repairs in the year, which is leading to shorter wait times for customers and a reduced number of complaints as the year went on, so we anticipate this will improve into the current year.
- Karbon have also introduced improved communication associated with repairs logged, now sending texts to confirm and remind tenants of appointments. They have also introduced outbound call messaging. These changes will hopefully assist by ensuring that when appointments are made, this is clearly communicated to the customer, giving customers the opportunity to re-arrange visits for a more convenient time if necessary.
- Keelman and Karbon have a joint complaint handling policy. In May 2025, Karbon introduced a new approach and a new Feedback team, dedicated to handling complaints, and this is reflected in the revised joint policy. This will ensure that those dissatisfied with a service being delivered have their concerns addressed quickly and effectively, in the first instance, by someone who can investigate the service area responsible for the complaint.
Member Responsible for Complaints Feedback
On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to see that towards the end of the year, Karbon’s timescales for attending to repairs was almost in line with our expectations, and we were performing above the sector median. We experienced a high number of complaints in the current year, mainly at the start of the year, and this was largely attributed to timescale and communication issues; however service improvements are being implemented, and I am reassured the teams are working to address any areas of weakness.
Keelman and Karbon collaborate in partnership to give the best experience possible to tenants. We will continue to oversee the work of the team to drive performance improvements wherever possible.
Nominated Board Member, Cllr Chris Buckley, Keelman’s Member Responsible for Complaints
Housemark (2025) Monthly Pulse Report. Issue 48: April 2025
