At Local Space we work hard to provide a great service to all our customers but there may be times when we do not get things right.

When we make a mistake we will always apologise, aim to put it right, and improve so we do not make the same mistake again. We learn from our mistakes and will use the feedback our customers provide to improve our services.

We actively seek feedback from our customers. For example, customers are invited to complete a telephone survey following complaints, when we let a new home, and on completion of repairs and gas servicing works. We also periodically carry out satisfaction surveys, to see how happy people are with the services we offer.

Before making a formal complaint, we would ask you to tell us about the problem so we can try to resolve it by contacting us on 0208 221 4000

To find out more about how our complaints process works view our Complaints Policy

There are times when we don’t get things right. When we receive a complaint, we’ll always apologise and try to put things right. Learning from our mistakes is important to prevent similar issues for other customers.

Here are some examples where we’ve made changes based on your feedback to improve our services:

• You tell us it’s sometimes difficult to get through to us on the phone. So we reviewed the automated telephone options for our main office number to provide a clearer option for you to speak directly to a member of the Local Space team.
• When there’s a delay in fixing a boiler, we now ensure K&T Heating offer to provide heaters to customers.
• K&T Heating and Axis Europe now handle our repair calls, so they’re now required to report any complaints they deal with that aren’t resolved within 5 working days. The complaint should then be passed to us, and we’ll deal with under Stage 1 of our complaints process.
• Some customers tell us that complaints are not always escalated promptly. We now ask customers to email our generic mailbox (info@localspace.co.uk) if they want to escalate their complaint. This ensures their request is picked up by a member of the relevant team and allocated to a senior member of the department.
• You’ve told us us that sometimes it’s not clear what the timeframes are for dealing with a repair. Axis Europe and K&T Heating now explain timescales to customers and how we prioritise appointments as Emergency, Urgent, and Routine, so you’ll know when the repair will be completed by.

There are several ways for you to give us feedback:

• In person with a member of our team
• Via email at info@localspace.co.uk
• By phoning us on 0208 221 4000 (lines are open Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 5pm)
• Or writing to us at: Local Space, 58 Romford Road, E15 4BZ

Please note that if you are a Newham Council tenant and your complaint is about a tenancy issue (such as repairs or anti-social behaviour) you will need to contact Newham Council directly to make that complaint. If you are unsure whether to make your complaint to Newham or Local Space please do give us a call.

There are some complaints that we will not usually investigate. These are:

• Complaints about something that happened more than twelve months ago
• Complaints about something outside of our control (for example,  we  cannot deal  with  complaints  about  other  organisations  but  may  be  able  to  give  you advice about who you should complaint to)
• Matters that are already the subject of legal action
• Personnel/staffing matters related to a Local Space employee
• Complaints concerning the content of an approved policy

If you make a complaint, we will focus on resolving your complaint in our ‘early resolution stage’. We will apologise and put things right quickly. We will seek to make whatever reasonable changes we can to resolve the complaint. We will let you know what we plan to do within 5 working days. The primary focus is on speed of resolution, not investigation and apportionment of blame. Here a member of staff will work with you to resolve the complaint informally.

Where the complaint cannot be resolved to your satisfaction informally, and/or within 5 working days, we will refer it at Stage One to a manager to formally investigate. The manager will develop an action plan with you and the responsible officer. This will normally take no more than 10 working days and we will always let you know if it will take longer and why

If you are not satisfied with our Stage 1 response, you have 10 working days to tell us that you want to take things further. You will need to tell us what the outstanding issues are and what outcome you are looking for. The complaint is referred at Stage 2 to a senior member of staff within Local Space (this will likely be a Head of Service or Senior Management Team member). The senior member of staff will work with you to achieve a satisfactory resolution.  This will normally take no more than 20 working days and we will always let you know if it will take longer and why.

The Housing Ombudsman Service does not usually investigate complaints before they have completed the complaints process, but they can take steps to encourage landlords and customers to work together to resolve a complaint. This may include contacting us to make enquiries about the status of your complaint and to encourage us to communicate with you. Once you have received a response from us, the Ombudsman would encourage you to continue to progress the complaint until you complete the process and receive a final response.

If you are still not satisfied with our response once you get to the end of our complaints process/we have made it clear that we consider the matter is considered by Local Space to be closed, you can ask the Housing Ombudsman Service to investigate your complaint.

The Housing Ombudsman will investigate your complaint and write to you and us with their decision and any recommendations.

• By post: Housing Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9GE.
• By phone: 0300 111 3000 (see call charges -lines are open Monday to Friday from 9.15am to 5.15pm)
• By fax: 020 7831 1942
• By email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
• For information about the Ombudsman visit their website: housing-ombudsman.org.uk

The Housing Ombudsman Service published a new Complaint Handling Code in July 2020, setting out good practice that will allow landlords to respond to complaints effectively and fairly. All landlords have been asked to self-assess against the new code. You can see the results of our self-assessment here and read more about the new Complaint Handling Code here.