Complaints Officer

Salary £31,310.03 per annum

Location Manchester, Greater Manchester

The vacancy

Permanent, Full Time – 35 hours per week (agile working arrangements in place)

Closing date: 14th August 2026

Interview date: 18th August 2026

Interview location: Oaklands House, Suite 2, Second Floor, Oaklands House, 34 Washway Road, Sale, M33 6FS

Our organisation is all about people – the people who live in our homes, the communities we serve, and those we work with. So, it’s no surprise that we recruit for attitude and behaviour which are central to us building relationships and delivering great experiences for these people. We employ colleagues who are passionate about making a difference who will take responsibility to get things done.

As a not-for-profit housing association, providing affordable homes and services to more than 20,000 people across Greater Manchester. We have a strong social purpose and make it our mission to enable people to live well in their home and community.

This role will help us to do this by managing complaints through to resolution, ensuring Irwell Valley Homes complies with the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, regulatory standards, internal policies and compensation procedures.

You’ll provide clear, fair, and empathetic support to customers, keeping them informed throughout the complaints process and ensuring each case is investigated impartially and resolved appropriately. Working collaboratively with managers and teams, you’ll identify service failures, agree actions to put things right and support learning and improvement from complaints.

In this role, you will be responsible for

Managing Stage 1 complaints through to resolution within required timescales.
Work with managers on complex cases, challenge decisions where appropriate and agree sustainable resolutions.
Produce clear, concise and well-reasoned complaint responses, referencing policy, law and good practice where relevant.
Engage with customers who remain dissatisfied after Stage 1 and seek to resolve concerns where possible.
Escalate complaints to Stage 2 where required, allocating cases to Heads of Service or senior managers.
Record learning from complaints in the HIVE and support managers to implement service improvements.

We need people who are

Knowledge of complaint handling, the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, housing regulation and compensation procedures.
Experience of complaint handling, investigations and managing cases through to resolution.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce clear, empathetic and professional responses.
Ability to manage a varied caseload, meet deadlines, maintain accurate records and provide a clear audit trail.
Resilience, empathy and confidence in managing challenging conversations fairly and professionally.
IT literate, including Microsoft Office 365 and housing/customer management systems

Everyone’s welcome here. Our culture is inclusive, and we are committed to increasing diversity. We enable everyone to be themselves at work, so that they feel at home with us. And we trust and support people to do their best, in a role that is fulfilling and rewarding because we know that this helps us to deliver better outcomes for our customers and our colleagues.

If you want to be part of our team and help us make a difference, we’d love to hear from you.

#ComplaintsOfficer #customerservicejobs #complaintsmanagement #housingjobs #recruiting #Manchesterjobs

About us

We are a not-for-profit housing association, providing affordable homes and services to over 16,000 people across Greater Manchester. We build affordable new homes, work with partners to reduce homelessness, and support people to reach their potential.

Our organisation is all about people – the people who live in our homes, the people in the communities we serve, and the people we work with.

So, it’s no surprise that we recruit for attitude and behaviour which are central to us delivering great experiences for everyone!

We employ people who are passionate about making a difference who can take responsibility and get things done. And we have developed a culture that supports people to do this.

Everyone’s welcome here. Our culture is inclusive, and we are committed to increasing diversity. We enable everyone to be themselves at work so that they feel at home with us. And we trust and support people to do their best, in a role that is fulfilling and rewarding because we know that this helps us to deliver better outcomes for our customers and our colleagues.

The Communities team

Our Communities team pride themselves on delivering a fantastic service to our customers, representing the customer voice throughout the organisation and striving to make a real difference in people’s lives!

Forging strong relationships with our customers is central to what we do, none more than in our Customer Service and Support Team who assist customers with all aspects of housing, they really are a clued-up bunch! They also manage a full range of digital contact channels including live chat, social media, our app and of course the telephone so are skilled as well as knowledgeable!

Our customers are important to us, and we want them to feel that way, which is why our Communities Team support residents to manage their tenancy and make sure neighbourhoods are clean, safe and places you're proud to live. It’s a great feeling for the team knowing they can help to make services better for our customers!

We are constantly striving to find innovative solutions to support customers and focus improve our customer experience. Whether it’s developing an app, streamlining process or finding service improvements, they always have the customer at the centre of what they do!

We’re committed to doing what we say we’ll do, keeping customers updated, building rapport and problem solving.

Stats:

483 people moved into one of our homes last year!
We engaged with 3,400 customers, on everything from our new cleaning contractor to building safety measures.
90% of customers were happy with how they were treated last year!
80% of customers were happy with their last contact with us
We handled over 75,000 customer contacts last year!
We continuously work with customers across the organisation including our Resident Scrutiny Panel, Customer Offer Panel and Community Champions.

“Thank you for your interest in joining our Communities Team. For us, the Communities team is all about being reliable and respectful in the way that we interact with customer’s and colleagues. The team is a tight-knit bunch who all share the same ethos, to deliver excellent customer service and have fun doing so! We are genuinely passionate about helping customers and delivering a great service to them. To do this, we give our colleagues the right training and support, offer some great benefits, and promote a positive, inclusive culture where everyone is able to deliver their best service by being their best self. If you share our goal in ensuring Customers can live well in their homes and Communities, I’d love to welcome you into the team!”

Ross Powell, Head of Customers and Communities