Customer Annual Review
This report shares how we’ve performed over the past year, what we’ve achieved together with our customers, and the areas we're continuing to improve. We're proud of the progress we’ve made and the difference it is starting to make, while also being open and honest about where we still need to do better.
Our performance this year shows real and encouraging improvement, driven by listening to what our customers have told us and taking action on the things that matter most. We know how important it is to get the basics right, and we’ve focused on improving repairs so they're completed more quickly, done properly first time, and clearly communicated every step of the way. We’ve also strengthened how we deal with damp and mould, with quicker responses, clearer processes and better coordination to make sure issues are resolved safely and for good. Alongside this, customers have told us they want to feel heard, treated fairly and able to access our services easily, and it’s positive to see improvements here too, with clearer communication and more issues being resolved at the first point of contact.
We know there’s still more to do, and we’re committed to building on this progress. We’re using what we learn from complaints to make real, lasting changes, and we’re strengthening neighbourhood services, focusing on cleaner, well-maintained communal areas and a more responsive approach to tackling anti-social behaviour. Looking ahead, we want to be more proactive, not just reactive. We’re investing in new systems to help us respond more quickly and consistently, rolling out our new iCARE customer service training to support every colleague to take ownership and deliver a great experience, and working more closely with partners to improve services locally. Our aim is to be local, listening and trusted to deliver, providing a service you can rely on, where we understand your needs, and act on your feedback.
Genette Pinwill
Executive Director of Customer Experience
Your money – how do we spend your rent?
Every penny of our income is used to improve our services, build new homes and support our communities.
For every pound we receive, this is how it’s spent:
*Interest paid on bank loans to help us invest in our existing homes and build more new ones
**Housing management costs for customer-facing teams as well as central services like People Team, Finance, IT and Commercial
***Overheads, for example depreciation, bad debt and our office space
Total spend of repairs and maintenance = £23 ,736,000 (a breakdown of costs is below. All figures in the table are thousands)
|
Description |
2025/2026 |
2024/2025 |
|
Routine maintenance (eg day-to-day responsive repairs) |
£ 11,808 |
£15,317 |
|
Cyclical maintenance (rolling maintenance schedule eg painting, decorating, lift maintenance) |
£8,177 |
£2,823 |
|
Planned maintenance (eg fire safety, compliance, health & safety incl asbestos, minor adaptions) |
£3,751 |
£4,216 |
|
Total |
£23,736 |
£22,356 |
You can read our full financial statements for 2025/26 here
Repairing and maintaining your home
We’re pleased to report that all measures in our repairs service have improved significantly and 77% of customers surveyed (Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) perception) were satisfied with the service they received. Customers have told us repairs are completed properly and more quickly and communication during repairs has improved. These improvements are the result of our efforts to improve quality of repairs and follow up through:
- better scheduling and planning to improve timeliness of repairs jobs
- increased post‑inspection checks on repairs quality,
- improved systems and processes so follow‑on jobs can be booked more easily
- proactive follow up on negative repairs feedback to put things right
- improved management of contractors and reducing wasted visits
We’ve really focused on improving the time it takes us to complete a repair, with the average time going down from 26.5 days to 14.4 days. This is a result of using our systems more efficiently, increasing the levels of supervision and post inspections and ensuring the right person with the right skills set is at the right job.
How we're performing
- 82.5% of customers were satisfied with their most recent repair (transactional surveys)
- We completed 91.5% of Emergency Repairs and 88.4% of non-emergency repairs on time
- 84.5% of repairs were completed on the first visit, up from 79.5% in 2024/25
Keeping you safe
Keeping you safe remains our number one priority, so we’re proud of the progress we’ve made in this area and 79.1% of you are confident in the safety of the home we provide. We’ve worked hard to maintain 100% landlord compliance again this year, this means the safety checks we need to do on your home - gas, fire, asbestos, water and lifts – are fully up to date*. Our electrical compliance at the end of March 2026 was 98.3%. We have an action plan in place and will be working with customers to make sure we’re fully compliant. We’ll continue to work to maintain this, you can help by letting us into your home to complete these safety checks.
In November 2025 we went out to visit customers living in our eight tall buildings, door knocking 453 homes to listen to customers and understand how we can continue to best keep them informed. We also held a customer boot camp to discuss building safety and improving services and communication.
We’ve got Fire Risk Assessments for all our buildings and continue to reduce the levels of open actions across these buildings. For our tall buildings we work in partnership with Kent Fire and Rescue Service to make sure we share information and have used vital feedback from customers to produce our customer engagement strategies.
We’ve introduced a new process to tackle damp and mould, aligned with Awaab’s Law. This means customers are now seeing quicker action, clearer ownership and safer outcomes, although we know we must continue to improve and rebuild customer confidence where past cases took too long.
We’re proud of the positive impact our new processes have had on the service customers receive. Our team aims to triage new cases within 24 working hours, with hazards removed and homes surveyed within two weeks. Since October 2025, the average time taken to close cases has consistently reduced to less than 12 weeks, helping customers receive faster resolutions and improved support.
*At 31 March 2026
Improving your homes
We’re now in the final year of a three-year asset strategy which will invest a total of £64.5m into our existing homes by April 2027. This year over 4000 of our homes will benefit from this plan.
We’re very close to 100% of our homes meeting the Government’s Decent Homes Standards — the national standard expected of all landlords to keep homes in a reasonable state of repair. On 31 March 2026, we reported 3 homes which did not meet this standard, all of these have plans in place to address the work needed as swiftly as possible.
How we’re performing
In 2025/26 we invested £24.4m improving existing homes with new features which included:
Delivering quality customer service
Our Customer Services Team has consistently met its performance targets throughout the year, with a continued focus on answering your calls as quickly as possible while providing a warm, friendly, empathetic and solution-focused service. As a result, call waiting times have improved significantly.
We’ve also received fantastic feedback about the service you’ve experienced when contacting the team. More than 4,000 compliments have been shared this year, highlighting the positive difference our colleagues make every day.
As part of our Golding Connect project, we’ve continued to improve how quickly we respond to emails, particularly those that need urgent attention. In line with our published Customer Offer, the Customer Services Team responded to 99% of emails within five working days.
We’ve also invested further in our Customer Portal - MyGolding, making it even easier for you to manage your tenancy online. New features now allow customers to cancel and reschedule repair and gas servicing appointments. Around 66% of customers now have a portal account, giving them a convenient way to access services at a time that suits them.
How we’re performing
- 92% of calls answered (88%*)
- Average wait time of 2 minutes 35 seconds (4 minutes 12 seconds*)
- 88.3% Customer Services Satisfaction (79%)
- 81.6% of calls resolved at first point of contact (73%*)
*2024/25
Putting things right
Satisfaction with complaints has improved by 5% this year, a positive step forward and puts us more in line with our sector peers. We’ve improved how we handle complaints by focusing on resolving issues earlier and putting clear systems in place to track and follow through on actions. This has helped reduce older open cases and response times, while making sure customers receive clear outcomes and understand what will happen next. Feedback from complaints and wider insight shows that communication, consistency and accountability remain key priorities, and these have been a central focus of our improvements this year.
We remain fully compliant with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and have a positive complaints culture across the organisation. This means being open when things go wrong, putting them right, and making sure we learn from every complaint to improve the experience for all customers.
We’ve published our latest Complaints Annual Report, setting out what customers have told us, how we’ve responded, and where we’re improving. It gives a clear, transparent view of our performance and the changes we’re making as a result of complaints.
Local and listening
Over the past year, we’ve focused on strengthening our neighbourhood services, so customers feel safe, supported and proud of where they live. We’ve embedded our new neighbourhood model and launched a dedicated Safer Neighbourhoods Team, bringing specialist expertise to respond to anti-social behaviour (ASB), domestic abuse and more complex cases. This has helped us take earlier, more coordinated action, working closely with partners such as the police and local authorities to support customers and improve neighbourhood safety.
We’ve increased our visibility in communities through events like neighbourhood action days, estate inspections and the Big Door Knock, speaking directly to customers about the local issues that matter most. Customers have told us they want to see more focus on the condition of shared spaces and communal areas, as well as quicker action on issues such as litter, fly-tipping and nuisance behaviour. We’re also working with partners to deliver community improvements, transforming an outdoor space at Crundale into an area for children to play and partnering with Skillcrown to secure investment into a local boxing gym in Shepway.
Our OPAL (Older People, Active Lives) Team have focused on building a consistent presence, visibility and engagement at our 12 schemes during the year. We’ve used customer feedback to tailor newsletters, activities and projects, we’re onsite weekly and carry out daily morning calls to check any safeguarding or tenancy issues. This structured approach keeps the team closely connected to customers, responsive to emerging needs, and able to provide timely interventions.
How we're performing
- We supported 437 safeguarding cases, supporting referrals for welfare checks, mental health, neglect (property condition) and self-neglect.
- We gave £70,653 in hardship grants, supporting 548 customer applications for financial assistance (in 2024/25 we gave £69,102 in hardship funds to 579 people).
- Referrals to our Welfare Benefits team averaged at 46.5 per month in comparison to 65 per month (2024/25).
- We helped customers access £824,474 in benefits (£444,154*)
- Rent arrears for March 2026 was 2.45% (2.4%*)
- Our Employment Advisors supported 192 people (153*)
- We helped 62 (*54) people find employment and supported 62 (55*) people into training
- We supported 37 (24*) people with a Personal Development Grant, totalling £6,531.22 (£3,809*) for help with training and learning
- Our Housing Solutions team supported 495 customers into new homes via the local housing registers and internal offers, including contractual successions
- We support customers living in eligible housing to mutually exchange their homes. 212 mutual exchange applications were submitted on Home Swapper with 148 completed exchanges within our homes.
- We completed 328 minor adaptations and 44 major adaptations to our homes
*2024/25
Safer Neighbourhoods
We're committed to helping customers feel safe and proud of where they live. This year we strengthened our neighbourhood services, carrying out 78 estate inspections, listening to customer feedback and working with local partners to tackle issues such as fly-tipping, litter, nuisance behaviour, parking, and the condition of communal areas. We also delivered community improvement projects, neighbourhood action days and targeted campaigns to address local concerns.
Our dedicated Safer Neighbourhoods Team managed 470 anti-social behaviour (ASB) cases, working closely with customers and partner agencies to resolve issues and support those affected. Customer satisfaction with our handling of ASB continues to improve, although we know that communication and regular updates remain important areas for further improvement.
We also supported 437 safeguarding cases and responded to 86 domestic abuse cases during the year. Working alongside specialist organisations, we helped customers access the support they needed and made 37 Place Safe referrals to improve safety within the home. We continue to invest in training, partnership working and service improvements to ensure vulnerable customers receive the right support at the right time.
How we're performing
- 78 estate inspections completed
- 470 ASB cases managed
- 437 safeguarding cases supported
- 86 domestic abuse cases supported
- 111 Good Neighbour Agreements issued
- 37 Place Safe referrals made to improve safety in the home
Working together with you
Keeping customers at the heart of everything we do is one of three objectives in our 2026-30 corporate plan. This was based on feedback from 285 customers who fed back on our long-term priorities. We’re listening and acting on what you tell us is important and working to keep you better informed. We’re pleased to see this reflected in TSMs, with all satisfaction scores in this area improving.
We continue to better understand our customers needs, using data in our customer compass survey to provide equal access, adapting our communications to be clear and respectful, as well as striving to always deliver on our promises. We’re working towards accreditation with National Autistic Society to better adapt to the needs of our neuro-diverse customers and embed our fair access approach.
Customer engagement remains at our core and we’re proud this was praised in our latest inspection by the Regulator for Social Housing.
This year we’ve:
- held three customer bootcamps focussed on building safety and environment improvements, damp and mould and tackling social housing stigma
- continued to engage our 3,500 strong customer voice panel for views on a range of topics
- used feedback from over 1,100 customers to inform service changes and improvements
- held our first Big Door Knock in April 2025, successfully talking to over 700 customers, and followed this up with the Little Big Door knock in November, focusing on Building safety at our tall blocks
- supported our Customer Insight Group to complete three formal scrutiny reports of our services
Next Steps: What we're focusing on in 2026/27
Over the next year we'll continue putting customers at the heart of everything we do by:
- Launching our new Customer Offer, setting out clearly what customers can expect from us and what we ask in return
- Introducing a new Customer Strategy and Engagement Framework to make sure customer feedback shapes our services and decisions
- Strengthening our culture of learning from complaints, acting on customer feedback to improve services
- Improving the quality, safety and appearance of neighbourhoods and communal spaces through effective estate management, customer-led improvements, and robust monitoring
- Improving the way customers contact us, making it easier to get help through the channel that works best for them
- Delivering faster, higher-quality repairs and continuing to improve how we respond to damp and mould and safety concerns
- Continuing our focus on anti-social behaviour and community safety
- Completing our Big Door Knock programme, helping us better understand what matters most to customers and communities.
- Using technology and data more effectively so we can provide more personalised services and resolve issues more quickly
- Delivering better value for money, ensuring every pound we spend makes the biggest possible difference to customers and homes
- Strengthening customer influence, giving customers more opportunities to tell us what's working, what's not, and help shape future services