Housing Compensation Policy Consultation

Housing Compensation Policy Consultation

Consultation description

We strive to deliver the best possible housing services to our residents, but we know that sometimes things go wrong. 

That's why we are proposing a new Housing Compensation Policy for Westminster Housing tenants and leaseholders. The policy aims to provide a fairer approach to how we assess and award compensation for your home when we fail to deliver a service. 

Summary of the proposal

If you are a Westminster tenant or leaseholder, have your say on our draft policy by 8 October.

The new policy aims to:  

• provide a consistent approach to awarding compensation, which is reasonable and fair.
• make the process of assessing compensation as simple as possible to make it easier for residents and ensure that claims are assessed and paid quickly.
• offer practical solutions to complaints on a case-by-case basis.
• make sure we learn from all complaints and make our services better.

It describes the type of payments set by law, and the type of payments decided by us.

For payments decided by the council, the solution offered must reflect the extent of any housing service failures and the negative impact that this causes to residents. This is split into four categories:

• Standard amounts for frequently occurring minor service failures that haven't significantly impacted a resident, such as a broken appointment.
• Low impact payments, £10 to £100. For example, for a delay in carrying out a repair, failure to reply to letters or return phone calls and so on. The duration would generally be less than three months, and the resident would have experienced minimal inconvenience.
• Medium impact payments, £100 to £600. For example, significantly delayed repairs which have resulted in distress and inconvenience, where the residents have had to chase responses and seek corrections of mistakes and have required multiple visits over an extended time before the problem is rectified.
• High impact payments, £600 or more. For example, a housing service failure that has gone on for over a year with a lack of action to address the issue, such as an ongoing leak that has significantly worsened over time and has caused avoidable damage to the property and the resident's belongings. In addition, the resident may have been required to stay in temporary accommodation.

Additional payments will be made to reimburse residents for actual loss, such as uninhabitable rooms, unusable garages or costs of repairs not being carried out.

Currently, if something has gone wrong with a Housing service we deliver and you wish to be compensated for it, you can either call our customer service team on 0800 358 3783, and they will help you complete a complaint form, or you can visit our webpage to complete the complaint form yourself.

After 8 October 2023, we're planning to make things easier for you. We're going to create a new, simpler way for you to claim compensation, based on feedback from residents. So, in the future, it should be much more straightforward to get compensated if something goes wrong.

Have your say

In-person

Housing officers will be at the following Housing Offices;

• 14 September - West Area Service Centre, 155 Westbourne Terrace, W2 6JX. 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 3pm.
• 21 September - South Area Service Centre, 137 Lupus Street, SW1V 3HE. 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 3pm.
• 28 September - Central Area Service Centre, 24 Lilestone Street, Lisson Green Estate, NW8 8SR AND North Area Service Centre, 1 Glasgow House, Lanark Road, W9 1QY. 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 3pm.
• 5 October - Queen's Park Housing Service Centre, 82 Bruckner Street, W10 4EY. 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 3pm.

Online survey

Respond to the Survey here

Your responses to the consultation will help inform the development of this policy to ensure that compensation is consistent, fair and reasonable if we fail to deliver a service for your home. Your feedback will help us do this in the most inclusive way possible.

Key contact

If you have any questions about the policy or the consultation, you can contact our Resident Engagement team at residentengagement@westmisnter.gov.uk or call 0800 358 3783

Timeline and construction methodology

Once the consultation is complete, a summary of the results of the survey and any changes that have been made as a result. We hope to go live with the final policy in December.

The policy will be reviewed annually to incorporate changes to legislative, and regulatory requirements and best practice developments, such as guidance from the Housing Ombudsman.

Documents

Document

Housing Compensation Policy Full Document

Housing Compensation PolicyPDF, 1.11 MB, 10 pages

Document

Housing Compensation Policy summary document

Housing Compensation Policy SummaryPDF, 8.49 MB, 2 pages