Housing Ombudsman reveals “sobering” 323% rise in severe maladministration findings
The Housing Ombudsman has published its Annual Complaints Review, revealing a “sharp” 323% increase in severe maladministration findings and a 40% increase in maladministration findings.
Last year, the Ombudsman received more than 5,000 complaints that were escalated for formal investigation for the first time.
The Ombudsman said the review paints a “challenging picture” of social housing complaints which have seen a “huge spike” due to poor property conditions, legislative changes, media attention and the inquest into the death of Awaab Ishak.
Alongside the review, the Ombudsman published individual performance reports for 163 landlords where it made the most findings.
There are currently 91 landlords with a maladministration rate above 50%, with 25 landlords being above 75%, the report noted.
The Ombudsman revealed it had written to the chief executives of landlords who have a maladministration rate of over 50% to bring “urgent attention” to the figures.
However, this year it is also writing to five landlords who had no findings upheld, recognising their “positive complaint handling approach”.
The Ombudsman’s main complaint type was property condition. This accounted for 37% of all the findings it made last year.
Complaints handling was the Ombudsman’s second largest category of complaint and had a 76% maladministration rate.
Looking at regional data, the Annual Review outlined the South-West as having the lowest overall maladministration rate, as well as having a “significantly lower” maladministration rate on health and safety complaints.
The North East and Yorkshire have the lowest severe maladministration rate, the report found.
London continues to be where the Ombudsman makes most of its determinations, even accounting for the quantity of social homes in the region. It had the highest maladministration rate and accounted for 77 of the 130 severe maladministration findings last year.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Our Annual Complaints Review provides a unique and sobering overview into social housing complaints in this country.
“While the statistics reflect a picture of poor practice, they also reflect the increased pressures we know that social landlords are facing with a combined housing and cost of living crisis.
“However, despite some notable efforts, what our data shows is a fundamental gap between some of the services landlords deliver and the reasonable expectations of their residents. Too often residents with disabilities or mental health needs are falling between those gaps. Too often the basics not being done properly, with straightforward communication or record keeping being missed leading to problems becoming more severe. This is leading to residents being treated unfairly and experiencing financial detriment or losing the enjoyment of their home."
Blakeway added: “As part of the Social Housing Regulation Act our powers have increased as we will soon be issuing wider orders to help landlords improve their policy and practice in key areas where we see potential for repeated failings.
“Next year, we will also be looking at developing good practice under our Centre for Learning and strongly encourage governing bodies to consider the review and what further action they can take to improve the outcomes for their residents.”
Running alongside the Annual Complaints Review was the Ombudsman’s landlord and resident surveys.
Overall, residents reported similar satisfaction levels with landlords’ complaints processes since the same survey was sent to the Resident Panel last year, the report revealed.
“But there were improvements in terms of signposting to the Housing Ombudsman, learning from complaints, and promotion of complaints”, the Ombudsman added.
Responding to the Housing Ombudsman’s Annual Complaints Review, Cllr Darren Rodwell, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said: “Councils are working hard to deliver good outcomes for tenants – despite significant financial constraints – and are committed to improving housing conditions for all residents.
“Ultimately, councils do not want to let their tenants down and want to work with them, the Ombudsman and the Regulator of Social Housing to deliver the best possible service.”
Lottie Winson
