In my foreword to the Annual Report and Accounts for 2024/25, I note the significant transformation in LeO’s operational performance in recent years, and how the pace of improvement in LeO’s service has been sustained. We have continued to deliver high levels of performance in a busy first quarter of the new financial year. LeO resolved more than 2,000 complaints in the first quarter of the year, exceeding the upper end of our expectations. This has meant quicker resolution times for our customers, and a reduction in the queue of complaints awaiting investigation. The challenge remains that this high performance continues to be delivered in the face of a significant and sustained increase in consumer demand for LeO’s help, which continues to rise. We are seeing record levels of new complaints being referred to us about the sector: we’ve reported a 20% increase year-on-year and, over the longer term, demand has not returned to pre-pandemic levels following the 47% increase in new complaints between 2019/20 and 2022/23. This materially impacts our ability to reduce the investigation queue at the speed we need to. We are working to understand the drivers of this demand. We continue to identify and implement further efficiencies, and LeO’s improved operating model is effective and sustainable. However, it cannot absorb ever-increasing volumes of complaints. This underscores the imperative of the second key objective in our 2024-27 strategy: to share insights and learning from complaints to help drive improvement. As the links below illustrate, this developing area of focus for LeO continues to grow in momentum. In a major milestone, we have delivered on our commitment to publish decisions in the public interest, as part of a wider commitment to enhancing the impact and transparency of LeO’s casework. We are piloting innovative new resources and services to support improved complaint handling. We are sharing more insight, with more still to come. Collectively, we face a significant demand challenge – one the whole sector needs to work together to address. LeO is committed to playing its part – visibly, transparently, and in partnership with the sector.
