Our housing promise
We'll put you and your safety at the heart of everything we do.
We promise to deliver a housing service that keeps you safe, listens to you and treats you with respect.
We’ll do our best to get things right first time and, if we don’t, we’ll fix it and learn from it.
In return, we ask you to:
- Pay your rent and/or service charges on time.
- Look after your home and report issues early.
- Be respectful to your neighbours and to staff.
- Reach out if you’re struggling – we're here to help.
Together, we can build safer homes, stronger communities and a better service for everyone.
This promise will be reviewed every year and updated when needed - whether that’s due to new laws, improved standards or your feedback.
Housing Service Standards
What you can expect from us
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A safe, secure and well-maintained home
We will:
- Carry out urgent and routine repairs as quickly as possible.
- Keep your home gas-safe with annual servicing.
- Carry out tests on the electrical wiring within your home every five years (Electrical Installation Condition Report).
- Make planned improvements to your building where needed.
- Adapt homes for disabled tenants where possible.
- Keep high-rise buildings safe and involve residents in safety decisions.
2. Clear communication and access to services
We will:
- Offer different ways to contact us including online, phone, in person or in writing.
- Use plain language and translate information when needed.
- Reply within 10 working days or keep you updated if it takes longer.
- Provide lots of different ways for tenants and leaseholders to get involved in shaping services.
- Send you a printed tenant newsletter twice a year to keep you updated on housing issues, changes and opportunities to get involved – this will also be published on our website.
3. A voice in decisions that affect your home
We will:
- Give you opportunities to shape services and policies.
- Support a range of tenant panels and forums to give you an opportunity to hold us to account.
- Ensure your feedback influences council decisions.
- Document tenant views in formal committee papers.
- Listen to you through surveys, events, complaints and regular conversations.
4. A fair and respectful service for everyone
We will:
- Treat you with dignity and without discrimination.
- Support tenants with additional needs or vulnerabilities.
- Make sure our services are inclusive and accessible.
- Provide information in a way that is accessible to you.
- Uphold your rights under our Equalities Policy.
5. Action on anti-social behaviour
We will:
- Take reports seriously and respond appropriately.
- Work with police and support services to resolve issues.
- Provide a named contact for more serious cases.
- Keep you informed and support victims.
- Offer support to help change behaviour where appropriate.
- Take tenancy action or legal action where appropriate to resolve high level anti-social behaviour.
6. Help when you're struggling
We will:
- Offer advice and support with rent payments and benefits.
- Help you access financial, health and wellbeing support.
- Work with you to keep your tenancy on track.
- Understand your situation and do what we can to help.
7. A clear and fair complaints process
We will:
- Make it easy for you to raise concerns including online, by phone, email or in writing.
- Take every complaint seriously and respond within 10 working days - if more time is needed, we’ll tell you why.
- Handle complaints in line with the council’s Complaints Policy, including a formal Stage 2 review if you’re unhappy with our initial response.
- Give you clear information on how to escalate your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman use what we learn from complaints to improve services for everyone.
- Publish a report on website which measures our performance against the Housing Ombudsman's complaint handling code.
8. Professional and Respectful Services (co-designed with our tenants)
We will ensure all council staff and contractors providing housing services are trained to act professionally, respectfully and courteously at all times.
We will:
- Treat you with respect, fairness and professionalism
- Listen to your concerns and take them seriously
- Communicate clearly, honestly and in plain English. We will explain decisions where appropriate.
- Be clear about the standards of behaviour you can expect from us through our Corporate Code of Conduct
- Make sure staff have the skills, knowledge and support they need to do their jobs well
- Meet our legal and regulatory responsibilities
We will also:
- Check these standards are being met
- Take action where improvements are needed
- Learn from complaints, feedback and service failures
- Follow through on agreed actions and commitments
- Use what we learn to help improve services
When services are delivered by contractors:
- We will expect them to meet the same standards as council staff
- We will monitor their performance
- We will take action if standards are not met
Your voice matters
We will use your feedback to help improve our services by:
- Listening to your experiences
- Learning from complaints and feedback
- Making improvements where needed
- Explaining how feedback has helped shape improvements where appropriate
Corporate Code of Conduct
Our Corporate Code of Conduct and core behaviours explain the standards of behaviour you can expect from staff and contractors when delivering housing services
What we expect from tenants
We ask you to:
- Pay your rent and service charges on time.
- Look after your home and report repairs promptly.
- Respect your neighbours and the wider community.
- Treat our staff with courtesy and respect.
- Let us know about things we need to improve.
- Get in touch early if you’re struggling – we'll always try to help.
If you breach the terms of your tenancy, your home could be at risk. But we’ll work with you wherever possible to avoid that.