Angry councillors say stressed residents are being treated with "contempt'' when making complaints about a housing association.

County councillors Christine Wharrier and Mike Hawkins said "90 per cent'' of their time is taken up with residents struggling to contact Home Group in west Cumbria.

Mrs Wharrier, who is councillor for Hillcrest and Hensingham in Whitehaven, said: "Residents are frustrated because they just can't get through to make complaints.

"This isn't our area but they are coming to us as a last resort. They just get ground down with ringing a number and not getting anything.

"I think Home Group are treating their customers with contempt.''

When intervening on behalf of customers, Mrs Wharrier said both her and Mr Hawkins had struggled to have their enquiries taken seriously.

"When we tried to get through to someone we were also fobbed off. That is not good enough,'' Mrs Wharrier added.

Home Group are one of the biggest players in social housing in west Cumbria.

Mr Hawkins, a councillor for Mirehouse, said: "We are seeing case after case. About 90 per cent of our time is taken up with people complaining about Home Group.''

He said the lack of a manned office in the area was making residents' lives "impossible'' as they were unable to speak to a Home Group representative face-to-face.

The councillors said the most complaints were about damp house and repairs.

Mrs Wharrier said she would be discussing the issue at Cumbria County Council's health and well-being committee.

She had also complained about the condition of a public footpath near to Calder Avenue, Whitehaven, which belongs to Home Group. "It is very overgrown,'' she said. "I know of one person in a wheelchair who was unable to get through on the path. It is a hazard.''

Margarita Morrison, Home Group director of customer service, said: “Our award winning Customer Service Centre takes an average of 14 seconds to answer calls.

"It’s open weekdays from 7am to 8pm and Saturday 8am till noon. Outside of these hours we provide a 24/7 emergency service on our 0345 141 4663 number.

“Customers can also contact us via email, our website, our Looking Local app or request a home visit. We asked a considerable number of our customers how they would like to contact us and the vast majority said they prefer the CSC, particularly the extended opening hours, rather than dealing with local offices with limited opening hours.

“Only last week the CSC was given a ServiceMark accreditation by the independent Institute of Customer Service to recognise its excellent service.

"Ninety-five per cent of our customers were satisfied in June at the speed of our response.

“We’re always happy to liaise with councillors or MPs acting on their constituents’ behalf, but for legal reasons we can only do so when the customer gives us their express permission to discuss their case. We would be happy to look into any enquiries and get back to customers and councillors acting on their behalf.

“We’ve been determining with the council who owns a patch of land on this estate and we’ve recently confirmed the land belongs to us. We’re liaising with landscapers to clear the area up.”