Report recommends CityWest Homes improvements

Estate office staff should also be empowered to make decisions and take responsibility for residents' queries so they are handled more quickly and effectively.

The recommendations were made by Westminster Council's health and community services policy and scrutiny committee and follow a presentation by both tenants and leaseholders about the poor quality of customer service experienced from CityWest Homes.

Committee members heard examples of communication breakdowns between residents and local estate offices, problems that were not followed up, unexplained service charges and maintenance work that was not carried out.

Chairman Cllr Judith Warner, said: "It's clear that communication between management and the people on the ground delivering services needs to improve.

"Some residents are being left confused and frustrated because their housing problems aren't dealt with quickly enough, or in the most serious cases that they aren't being dealt with at all.

"We have to understand what isn't working and by listening to residents' examples we can work backwards and improve on those things.

"Ultimately, we all have to work together to ensure residents are getting the high level quality of service they deserve."

CWH has pledged to respond to each of the points raised.

Mark Hoyland, chief executive of CWH, said: "Delivering excellent customer service is at the heart of what we do.

"We launched a new programme in the summer to tackle customer service and we're now seeing satisfaction increasing in many areas.

"We're listening to our tenants and leaseholders and reacting positively to their issues.

"Residents have acknowledged that, while they have had mixed service standards in the past, the changes we have made are already making a different and things have improved.

"We do welcome the role of the committee, and are pleased that the items raised are very high on both our agendas."