Levelling Up Secretary “incredibly disappointed” at “unacceptable” severe maladministration rate Housing Ombudsman found at London borough
The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, has written to Islington Council expressing his "grave concern" about the findings of the Housing Ombudsman’s recent investigation into the London borough.
The investigation, which found that empowering staff is key to improving housing service delivery, highlighted that the Ombudsman upheld at least one aspect of the resident’s complaint in every case and in almost half of cases found severe maladministration.
Islington has a severe maladministration rate of 24.7%, which is nearly four times the national average of 6.7%.
The failings of the landlord reportedly fell into three main categories:
- Disrepair – There were unreasonable delays within repairs in terms of both acknowledgement and taking action to resolve the issues.
- Anti-social behaviour (ASB) – The landlord approached noise reports using its ASB policies and procedures but could not demonstrate it followed them.
- Complaint handling – Islington does not do enough to promote its complaints process to residents nor learn from complaints that do make it through the process.
The report also revealed underlying cultural issues which consistently let Islington down throughout all of the above, including reactivity rather than proactivity, a clear lack of ownership or responsibility taken and poor record keeping across the board.
The Ombudsman ordered the landlord to apologise to residents in 17 instances and pay a total of £66,441, an average of more than £2,000 per case. Over half of this (£33,792.49) was for complaints about property condition. The Housing Ombudsman also required a pay out of £7,625 for the impact of poor complaint handling on residents. Overall, during the monitoring period 186 orders or recommendations to put things right were issued.
Islington fully accepted the Ombudsman’s report and recommendations in a learning statement, stating that, as a landlord, the council “want everyone in Islington to have a safe, decent, and genuinely affordable place to call home.”
In his letter, Gove acknowledged and gave praise for this ‘open and transparent’ response to the Ombudsman, observing that the council had begun to address some of the issues raised. However, the minister also stated that there was still significant work to be done to improve the service delivered to residents.
The Levelling Up Secretary wrote: “I was incredibly disappointed to read that your severe maladministration rate is four times the national average. This is unacceptable.” [Minister’s emphasis]
Gove accused the council of failing to identify underlying issues and taking a superficial approach to problems such as damp and mould.
Saying there was an urgent need for culture change within the organisation, the Secretary of State wrote: “You stopped listening to your residents and failed to deliver the service they deserve. You also failed to recognise the seriousness of the issues raised by your residents and the impact your failings had on them.”
In the letter Gove highlighted new legislation intended to prevent situations such as this, suggesting that the Social Housing Regulation Act brings in “a tough new regulatory regime”.
He added: “This Government expects social landlords to double-down on their efforts to provide the high-quality social housing that residents deserve.”
Gove said he would be taking a personal interest in the evidence Islington provides to the Ombudsman about how it intends to address the failings identified in the report. He also said he would like to meet with the council about the matter.
Harry Rodd
