Hounslow Council's Cabinet has noted a significant rise in housing landlord complaints, with figures increasing by 7.5% in the 2025/26 financial year. However, the council has also reported substantial improvements in its response times to these complaints, with 85% of complaints now being responded to within required timescales, up from 59% in the previous year.

An illustration depicting various aspects of community life in the London Borough of Hounslow, including schools, community centers, parks, and local businesses.
An illustration depicting various aspects of community life in the London Borough of Hounslow, including schools, community centers, parks, and local businesses.

During 2025/26, the council received 1,095 complaints, up from 1,019 in the previous year. Despite the increase in volume, the proportion of complaints responded to within the required timescales rose significantly. Overall compliance with the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code also improved, reaching 65% compared to 46% in the prior year.

Councillor Sue Sampson, Cabinet Member for Housing, presented the Annual Housing Landlord Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, highlighting that the primary themes for complaints included delays in service delivery, communication failures, poor or incomplete repairs, and weaknesses in case ownership. The report, available in the Public reports pack Tuesday 08 Sep 2026, detailed the improvements made.

Whilst complaint volumes have continued to increase, the Council has achieved improvements in complaint handling performance, particularly in responding within statutory timescales and improving tenant satisfaction with complaint handling, the report stated. Improvement activity has focused on stronger oversight, clearer accountability, systematic root-cause analysis, and a structured lessons-learned process. A new case management system is also being implemented, which is expected to enhance the consistency, completeness, and quality of data recording and reporting.

The Cabinet noted the report and the Council's self-assessment arrangements against the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code. The meeting minutes can be found here.

A diagram illustrating Hounslow Council's 'Building Climate Resilience' plan, categorizing actions into Adaptation and Mitigation strategies with associated icons.
A diagram illustrating Hounslow Council's 'Building Climate Resilience' plan, categorizing actions into Adaptation and Mitigation strategies with associated icons.