Complaints to Westminster Council cut

The fall has been attributed to improvements in dealing with members of the public when they first contact the council with an issue.

At CityWest Homes, for example, which manages almost 22,000 homes on behalf of the council, improvements have been made to the repairs services meaning this has led to a reduction in the number of formal complaints that have been received.

The latest figures, revealed at the Audit and Performance Committee meeting last week, also show that the number of stage 3 complaints - where the council's complaints team send their response to the chief executive for his approval - have decreased by 18 per cent, meaning complaints are now being solved at an earlier stage.

The council's response times have also improved.

Figures show that in 2008/09, when people initially made contact with the council, 85 per cent were contacted within the targeted response time but this has now gone up to 90 per cent in 2009/10.

Cllr Tim Mitchell, chairman of the audit and performance committee, said: "Overall, the council's performance has improved and it is very encouraging to see that departments are solving issues and dealing with complaints the first time that members of the public contact them.

"However, we are never complacent and there is always lots of room for improvement.

"We want to see complaints being dealt with more efficiently and to a higher standard across the council."