Resident engagement consultations and workshops
Due to an IT issue, our housing complaints email address isn't working. We're expecting to have it back up and running by the end of the week.
If you need to raise a housing complaint in the meantime, please use our housing complaints form.
We’ve taken an innovative, resident-led approach to creating our new Resident Engagement Strategy.
To make sure the strategy was truly collaborative, we set up a panel of 10 residents, chosen from over 100 applicants. The panel reflects Lewisham’s diversity, different occupations, areas, and communities, and met four times, both online and in person. They helped shape the consultation, reviewed questions, and monitored the process to ensure it met residents’ needs.
Our engagement reached around 850 residents through a mix of methods. Over 700 residents shared feedback via online surveys, and we held focus groups with key community groups, including the Young Mayor’s team and the Vietnamese Family Partnership. We also knocked on doors and translated surveys into Somali, French, and Vietnamese to remove language barriers.
What makes our approach stand out is how we worked with local partners, food stores, youth projects, gardening groups, and schools, to reach residents who might not usually take part. We monitored responses throughout and targeted areas with low engagement, making sure the consultation reflected voices from across our community.
This collaborative process means residents have helped shape the new strategy and framework, putting their voices at the heart of future engagement.
You can read the full strategy and consultation summary below.
Resident complaints workshop
In March 2024, Lewisham Council Housing Services took significant steps to improve how we handle complaints, ensuring residents have a voice in shaping the process. We set up a complaints panel, inviting over 30 residents who had raised complaints in the previous six months and were dissatisfied with our responses. Alongside them, we included our Resident Scrutiny Panel, which had recently assessed our approach to repairs complaints and provided recommendations for improvement.
During the session, we listened to the residents' feedback, noting specific concerns about communication gaps, delays in responses, and inconsistencies in how complaints were handled. Residents highlighted the need for clearer timelines, more transparency throughout the process, and a fairer approach to compensation. Their insights were instrumental in shaping how we now deliver the service.
Based on their feedback, we revised our internal processes to ensure more timely updates, clearer guidelines on complaint escalation, and a revised compensation policy that reflects the importance of prompt and fair resolution. We also committed to continuous engagement with the panel, checking in regularly to ensure that their concerns are heard and acted upon. By taking their views into account, we have strengthened our approach to managing complaints and improved our service to be more resident-focused.