Housing Ombudsman inspection report urges London borough to tackle cause of complaints

Lambeth Council has made improvements but these have not been “seen and felt by its residents”, the Housing Ombudsman has said in an inspection report.

The Ombudsman undertook an inspection at the London borough after being dissatisfied at information provided by the council in response to its orders about complaint handling.

The Ombudsman said the inspection allowed it to hear from complaint handling staff directly and understand the pressures the landlord is facing, “as well as identify inconsistencies in handling complaint effectively”.

This led to the discovery of a lack of consistency in various aspects of the landlord’s complaint handling, including in how it lodged complaints, with timescales being outside of compliance with the Complaint Handling Code, and some complaints being dealt with by a separate ‘members enquiries’ process.

The Ombudsman also said that several members of staff had told it different things about the same processes of closing complaints.

Whilst progress has been made in some parts of the complaint handling, the landlord is currently not resourced to adequately respond to the complaints it is handling through its existing process, the report found.

“This means the landlord’s efforts to respond adequately to complaints will only ever go so far. Unless addressed, residents will continue to have to contact the landlord several times to be heard and face unacceptable delays to complaints,” the Ombudsman said.

The inspection also identified a need for Lambeth to refocus on the reoccurring issues that lead to complaints coming to the Ombudsman: not fulfilling its commitments made at stage two and not recognising the full impact of its failings and providing appropriate redress.

The landlord’s focus on the volume of outstanding complaints also meant its approach to learning from complaints and root cause analysis was “underdeveloped”, according to the report.

“Due to the clear link between the landlord’s approach to repairs and its complaint handling performance”, the inspection also made recommendations around this, including making sure repairs records are more robust and consider vulnerabilities.

Lambeth also carried out its own internal review following the investigation and had built on some of the findings, a move which was welcomed by the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman said it would continue to hold the council to account through its casework and would review the landlord’s performance in its next annual report.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “This inspection happened because two residents had to seek the Ombudsman’s intervention more than once to resolve complaints that we had previously upheld. The landlord must ensure this is not repeated.

“There are still too many residents receiving an unacceptable service. Indeed, the frustration of some residents was palpable at a Meet the Ombudsman session the landlord hosted. Effective complaint handling is a core component of rebuilding trust with residents.”

He added: “By improving its learning from complaints and channeling its efforts into truly understanding the driving factors behind its complaints, the landlord will give itself every chance of improving.

“We commend the leadership of the landlord for the focus it has brought to resolving the problems which have beset it. The landlord has introduced a culture of accountability and ownership and a solid platform to now go further.”

There were already positive signs, Blakeway said, with the Ombudsman not issuing the landlord with a Complaint Handling Failure Order in over six months, having issued five last year. However, the steps the landlord has taken have yet to result in a more consistently positive resident experience, he added.

Blakeway said: “Crucially, the landlord needs to guard against what happens once the increased focus it currently has on its complaints and repairs services is removed. A transition to business as usual will bring with it risks of a return to the unacceptable performance seen in recent years.

“The landlord will need to put in place measures to identify and act on any decline in standards as early as possible.”

Lambeth Council said it welcomed the report, saying it had used the process to positively identify areas of improvement in services to residents.

It accepted the findings and committed to delivering the recommendations within three months. The council apologised for the failings identified in the complaints that led to the inspection and said it had fixed the issues that impacted residents as well as paying compensation to them.

Lambeth said the Ombudsman had acknowledged the council's significant transformation in the last 12 months, highlighting the introduction of "a culture of accountability and ownership".

Steps taken included senior leadership changes, the introduction of robust governance arrangements, a review of high-risk complaints, and improved communication.

The council has managed to reduce overdue complaints from 2,283 in April 2022 to 154 in November 2023. The council has also improved performance, with 90% of appointments and 72% of repairs being completed on time.

Lambeth said: “We are fully committed to improving all the homes that the council manages, but record construction inflation, government funding cuts and restrictions on council income all make that much harder. We will continue to lobby the government to invest in good, warm, affordable and sustainable homes, while carrying out the improvements necessary to deliver a better service for Lambeth residents.”

Harry Rodd