Customer relations, complaints and feedback

At Anchor we know that resident feedback is essential to helping us improve the services we provide.

We value all types of feedback and have a responsive resident feedback process to ensure we can respond to all compliments, complaints and suggestions quickly and effectively.

Anchor’s complaints policy and procedure

We’d like to think that we get things right most of the time, but we know that occasionally things may go wrong. We operate a 2 stage complaints process for these cases. As an organisation that is committed to listening to our residents and improving our service, we really do want to hear from you if you’ve had a problem.

We will always do our best to make sure you can contact us easily. Part of this will involve putting in place additional measures, where it’s considered necessary and reasonable to do so, which would assist our communication with you. This might include for example providing correspondence in large print, Braille or Audio or by facilitating access to a language line translation support service. Just let us know if there is any difficulty and we will do our best to help. Find out more about how to let Anchor know your communication preferences here.

If you have a local manager that works at your location often the quickest way to put things right is for you to speak to them. However, we do appreciate though that sometimes this isn’t possible, or you’ll want to contact us directly, so we’ve made this easy for you to do.

For detailed information about our complaints policy and procedure, including when you will receive responses, our use of mediation and details of outside agencies you can contact, download our Complaints, Compliments & Suggestions helpsheet.

Download our Complaints Policy (updated November 2024)

Download our Customer Helpsheet (updated June 2024)

The documents above can be made available in large print, Braille, audio or electronic formats and other languages on request.

Compliments

We are always delighted to hear from residents who recognise our colleagues for delivering an excellent service.

Compliments let us know where and how we are succeeding in providing good service and provide examples of good practice that we are committed to sharing with our residents and throughout the organisation.

At Anchor we like to give praise where it is due, so if you would like to thank a member of staff, or a volunteer for the service they have provided you or a loved one, please contact the Customer Relations team using the details below and we will be sure to pass on your appreciation.

Contact the Customer Relations team

You can contact the Customer Relations team with a complaint or compliment by completing one of our ‘We welcome your feedback’ forms available at our locations or by using one of the following contact options:

Email the team

Email: [email protected]

Write to the team

Customer Relations
2 Godwin Street
Bradford
BD1 2ST

Call the team

0800 731 2020 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm)

Online

You can complete the ‘Contact us’ webform, selecting "Compliments and feedback" as your enquiry type to reach the Customer Relations team.

We are keen to hear from you

Anchor’s Director of Customer Experience, Dan Rhodes is always keen to hear from our residents;

"We pride ourselves on delivering a high standard of service, though realise that things can go wrong from time to time, and when that happens, our aim is to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible.

"We're just as keen as you are to get to the bottom of whatever the complaint might be, so please talk to us as soon as possible and we'll do the best we can to help find a solution. You might even be helping other customers in future by bringing it to our attention. We also really like to hear feedback on what we do well or Anchor colleagues who make a difference to you so we can share your feedback with them, so please do let us know."

We look forward to hearing about your experiences, and more importantly learning from your feedback.

The Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, Self-Assessment and Complaint Performance and Service Improvement Report

On 1 April 2024 the Housing Ombudsman launched its updated Complaint Handling Code and compliance with this Code became a Statutory requirement on the same date.

We demonstrate our compliance by completing and publishing a self-assessment on our website, which is updated annually. We also publish the annual Complaint Performance and Service Improvement Report. This report is approved by our Service Quality Committee, who made the following statement in response to the report in May 2024:

On behalf of Anchor’s Board, the Service Quality Committee have considered our inaugural Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report.

Whilst we strive to provide high quality accommodation and services to our residents, it is important that when we get something wrong, we act quickly to remedy our failings and learn lessons, so we become a better landlord.

We are pleased to endorse the progress that we have made in the last 12 months in dealing with and learning from the insight provided by our customers who have had cause to complain.

A copy of our most recent self-assessment, report and the Code is shown below. Previous versions of the self-assessments are available upon request.

Anchor Self-Assessment (June 2024)

Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report (2023/2024)

The Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code (updated April 2024)

For further details about the Housing Ombudsman see the Contact details listed below.

Further information and external bodies you can contact

Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 1484, Unit D, Preston, PR2 0ET
Tel: 0300 111 3000
E-mail: [email protected]

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH
Tel: 0300 061 0614
www.Igo.org.uk

Care Quality Commission Customer Service Centre
Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4PA
Tel: 0300 616161
www.cqc.org.uk

First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) - (leaseholders and tenants)
An application can be made to the Tribunal to address certain types of disputes (such as service charge disputes or rent increases). For a full list of their areas of jurisdiction please see the website detailed below.

Contact details for your regional office can be found by visiting: https://www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals/first-tier-tribunal-property-chamber

The Leasehold Advisory Service
Tel: 020 7832 2500
www.lease-advice.org

Energy Ombudsman
P.O. Box 966, Warrington, WA4 9DF
Tel: 0330 440 1624
Email: [email protected]
www.energyombudsman.org
The Energy Ombudsman handles disputes between consumers energy suppliers (in some situations this will be Anchor).