Housing Ombudsman special investigation finds residents of London borough left “feeling anything but secure in their homes”

The Housing Ombudsman has issued a report making 138 orders to the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, following a special investigation.

The investigation was initiated last year following a rise in cases found to involve severe maladministration at the council.

The report, which made 85 findings in 33 cases with a maladministration rate of 88%, said residents had been left “feeling anything but secure in their homes” after Hammersmith & Fulham’s failures.

Among the cases were instances such as windows that could not be closed to make properties secure, part of a window frame falling out of a property into a garden below, ceiling debris falling onto the head of a young child, and residents complaining of feeling unsafe in their buildings.

The Ombudsman identified two key themes and made recommendations to improve in those areas:

• Repair handling – The Ombudsman found multiple failings in this area, such as the council not hitting emergency or routine repairs timescales. This had a detrimental impact on residents with incorrect contractors being sent, repairs incomplete, and issues reoccurring. The council also was not routinely updating records in a timely manner which meant there was often confusion about the status of the repair or whether works had taken place. Contractors further contributed to the issues via either not sending the correct operative or performance and quality being called into question. When the contract of one contractor was terminated, residents suffered between the transition and the lack of focus on residents’ complaints was a missed opportunity to recover poor service, according to the Ombudsman. “Additionally, a lack of a vulnerabilities policy, or a failure to follow it if it existed, has resulted in vulnerable residents being left in properties that impacted their physical and mental health.”
• Complaint handling – The council’s complaints procedure was not compliant with the Complaint Handling Code, meaning it initially failed to escalate 40% of cases investigated, and in three of these cases, it only did so after Ombudsman involvement. There were also extensive delays in many of the responses. These did not always provide an adequate level of detail, address each point, or were incorrect or contradictory of previous responses, with occasional failure to action the promises made in the responses. “On top of this, it did not appear to follow its own compensation policy and the difference between initial offer and final compensation payment was sometimes significant.”

The Ombudsman recommended that Hammersmith & Fulham undertakes several improvements such as updating its repairs and maintenance handbook, creating a knowledge and information management framework for all stages of the repairs process, and reviewing its whole complaints procedure to ensure it is compliant with the Complaint Handling Code.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Social housing provides vital services, and the leadership of the landlord should be commended for the proactive and positive approach it has taken to learn from this investigation.

“The landlord appeared to be operating in crisis management mode for a number of years. Central to this investigation is the handling the short-term impact of the removal of a contractor when some residents were living with unacceptable service failures that required redress. This provides cautionary evidence for other landlords.”

He added: “Our investigation reveals how many residents said that they felt the ongoing issues were having a detrimental impact on their mental wellbeing; others advised their physical health was declining as a result of the disrepair, and for others, there was also fear of being injured as a result of the ongoing repairs.

“There were also financial implications as residents had to spend additional money to keep their properties heated during the winter months, with some residents choosing to pay for their own independent inspections in order to progress the repairs.”

Blakeway noted that the council had already taken steps to improve its structure and processes in key areas.

“This demonstrates how complaints can be essential to make social housing better and give landlords a clear picture of where improvements need to be made. As our Complaint Handling Code becomes statutory, it is essential landlords use this opportunity to make learning from complaints routine and put the right resources into complaint handling,” he said.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council accepted the report and its findings, saying it had “apologised, compensated, and worked hard to rectify where we have let people down”.

It added that its commitment to put things right had seen the establishment of a chief executive-led Taskforce to strengthen its housing services and leadership team. It is also delivering an “ambitious” £729m programme to modernise an ageing housing stock.

The local authority said it had invested heavily in additional repairs contractor capacity, and its new management was ensuring that contractors complete quality work punctually and are more responsive to residents, especially people with vulnerabilities or support needs.

“Over the last nine months we have reduced the number of outstanding repairs by nearly 30%. There has been a 90% reduction in repairs outstanding for more than 12 weeks,” the council added.

The local authority also highlighted steps it had taken to improve its complaints handling.

It has put into place a ‘Defend Council Housing Policy’ which it said made clear its “unwavering commitment to the future of council housing in Hammersmith & Fulham”.

However, the council also suggested that it was “operating in an external environment of national underfunding, high inflation, and workforce and supply chain challenges heightened by Brexit and the pandemic”.

Harry Rodd