The majority of social housing in Oldham is managed by other organisations, including:
They are:
Residents living in these properties will need to contact the relevant organisaiton to provide feedback or request repairs.
Although the majority of social housing is not managed by the Council directly, there are a small number of properties in the borough that are owned and managed by Oldham Council.
This webpage explains how you can provide feedback if you are a direct tenant of the Council
Oldham Council Tenants Housing Complaints Policy
We want to be a good landlord and we use feedback from our tenants to:
- Improve the services we provide
- Say sorry and do our best to put things right when they have gone wrong
- Understand when things have gone well
- Understand what is important to residents
Many issues, like missed appointments or repair requests, can be resolved quickly by contacting either Housing21 or Inspiral Oldham, if they manage your property.
If Oldham Council manages your property, or if there is a problem with the Housing partner's service, then the Contracts Manager for Strategic Housing can help.
The Housing Contract Manager can be contacted using the following details:
Email: housing.options@oldham.gov.uk
Post:
Contracts Manager – Strategic Housing
Place and Economic Growth
Oldham Council
Spindles Shopping Centre
West Street
Oldham
OL1 1LF
If the Contracts Manager for Strategic Housing can't resolve the issue, they will inform the Council's Complaints Team of your concerns.
If you do want to raise a concern or complaint, we ask that you do so as soon as possible. This is so that we can work to resolve the problem as quickly we can for you. Also, we will only consider complaints made within 12 months of when you became aware of the issue.
To contact the Council's Complaints Team, please use the online feedback form.
If you do make a complaint, we will acknowledge it within five working days. We will then aim to resolve it within 10 working days. We hope our reply to your complaint will resolve the issue. But, we know there can be differing opinions. Therefore, if you are not happy with our initial response, you can ask us to escalate it to Stage 2. We will aim to send your Stage 2 response within 20 days of receiving your request to escalate your complaint.
If you are still unhappy with the Council's response, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman after you get the Stage 2 response. The Housing Ombudsman is an independent, impartial service. It can advise you on your complaint. Contact details for the Housing Ombudsman:
Phone: 0300 111 3000, 9.15am — 5.15pm: Monday to Friday
Post:
Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 152
Liverpool
L33 7WQ
Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk.
Please note that if you cannot access online services, the Complaints Team offers a call back service which is available on 0161 770 8122. The team aims to return calls within 2 working days. So that we can make sure all contacts are dealt with as effectively and quickly as possible, we do ask that this telephone line is only used by those who are unable to use online services.
A copy of the Housing Complaints Policy for direct tenants of the Council can be found here, along with our self-assessment:
A copy of our annual report for the year 2023/24 can be found here:
Compliments
We also welcome positive feedback and will always ensure it is passed to the member of staff who dealt with you. We will also use the feedback you provide to see if there is an opportunity to role out good practice across other services.
The quickest way for you to contact the Complaints Team is via the online feedback form:
Unreasonable contact
We do our best to fix any problems quickly. Please be patient with staff as they look into your issues.
We know it can be frustrating when things go wrong. But, we do not expect staff to tolerate abusive, offensive, or threatening behaviour. We will take action to protect staff from such situations.
We will not usually limit residents' contact with staff. However, if someone's behavior becomes unreasonable, we will take action in line with our Unreasonable Behaviour Policy. A copy of this policy can be accessed via the following link: