It’s hard to believe the published figures that only 4,843 residents complained during 2021-22. It simply doesn’t hold true. I’ve made seven valid and reasonable requests to have this one issue passed on to the complaint team. This still hasn’t happened.

This puts the rest of the published figures into doubt. As a recap here they are:

In a list (again published by GreenSquareAccord) they provide a breakdown of the areas this supposed figure of almost 5k people complained about.

Learning number one - GreenSquareAccord have published false figures

The big issues are the delays (certainly upheld in our complaint) and communication. It’s clear that this is a major area for improvement.

But the big, big issue - the math don’t add up! That’s right folks, in the published, public record of GreenSquareAccord figures for the year, it appears that nobody has checked the math.

The above figure equals 660.

So short of the total 4,843.

Still too short to be considered correct for the first stage response of 4,077.

It must be the number that were passed to stage two 674. Only out by 14!

Why is nobody first able to correctly analyse the figures, and why is nobody embarrassed by this inability to provide coherent reporting? This is either proof that the team are unable to quantify and publish data, or they are deliberately misleading their residents, the sector, and the board. In both cases, they need to step down.

Remember in the email sharing this report, GreenSquareAccord wrote ‘We believe it's important to be open and transparent with our customers and our annual report gives you an account of how we performed across all our services’. Misleading, confusing, inaccurate or false - you decide.

Learning number two - GreenSquareAccord have a problem with internal KPIs

This case has highlighted that GreenSquareAccord close down cases before they’ve been resolved. This has happened before and will no doubt continue to happen. Why would they do this, because it’s easier than solving issues, they are unable to fix issues, or they don’t want to share KPIs that highlight a systemic issue affecting thousands of residents across the UK - again, you decide.

Learning number three - GreenSquareAccord have an issue with timekeeping

And not just when it comes down to responding to residents. You’d think they would at least respond to the Housing Ombudsmen in a timely manner, but no. In what is another example of this housing provider having utter contempt for governing bodies (yes this too is an ongoing issue), even the Housing Ombudsmen has to wait.

Here is an internal email between GreenSquareAccord and the Housing Ombudsman, where the Housing Ombudsman clearly present a reasonable timeframe:

However timeframes are not something GreenSquareAccord are bound by, here are not one but two responses from GreenSquareAccord to the Housing Ombudsmen:

Unable or unwilling - you again must decide…

Learning number four - Ruth Cooke could be in trouble

If Ruth Cooke is feeding these figures back to the board then surely she must trust them, or perhaps these inaccurate figures are just for public consumption. Who can tell? Let’s give Ruth the benefit of the doubt and assume that the figures are either incorrectly compiled or based on false KPI reporting. If either of these are true, is she too far removed to be able to validate them?

Yes.

If you are going to present numbers to your residents and your board, you need to ensure the data is true. This isn’t the case, as such there needs to be a response to the issue raised.

GreenSquareAccord won’t respond to me. This may be due to internal confusion caused by their own communication plan. Unfortunately, it‘s more likely that they don’t like the facts as published here on this site, which don’t support the false narrative being sold to residents, the housing sector, and our civic leaders who need to build homes.

Learning number five - we are a long way from achieving real results and treating customers with respect.

I don’t like the term ‘customer’. We are not ‘customers’, we have no consumer rights. We are residents, these are our homes and we can’t walk away. We are investors in GreenSquareAccord. How long can this current state of play be tolerated before we can have a vote of non-confidence? If GreenSquareAccord truly want to put the customer at the heart of everything they do, should this not start with the correct and proper escalation of complaints? Should we not have accurate reporting? Does Ruth Cooke not deserve to stand before her board with accurate, honest data? Do Robin and the rest of board not deserve a true reflection of the progress being made on their ‘ambitious’ corporate journey?

This is just one complaint, just one example, yet it has clearly proven how widespread and systemic the problem really is.

Worrying isn’t it…