Industry News
R&M weaknesses exposed at major HAs T
wo of the country’s biggest housing associations have been hit with critical reports of their repairs service to tenants, at
a time when customer services are coming under greater public scrutiny. Metropolitan Thames Valley which has 57,000
homes was criticised by the Housing Ombudsman in a rare ‘special report’ for failing to comply with an order after an investigation into a tenant’s complaint about repairs. The ombudsman said it found
“maladministration” at the association back in November 2017 in relation to maintenance at one housing block. At the time it ordered Metropolitan Thames Valley to provide more information to the tenant who had complained, pay compensation to them and carry out the maintenance by April last year. The HA carried out the first two orders, but failed to finish the works before the deadline. The association said the delay was caused by
“procurement and personnel difficulties”. It acknowledged that failing to comply with the order “had caused further distress and inconvenience to the complainant and to other residents in the block affected”. A spokesman said a review was being undertaken to learn from the outcomes of the case.
PAINFUL LESSONS L&Q with 95,000 homes admitted that its maintenance of Portway House in Southwark, south-east London fell below its normal standards as residents endured four years of “poor service and inadequate responses”. The new build scheme was handed over to L&Q in 2014 and residents were regularly reporting problems from the outset. A
L&Q with 95,000 homes admitted that its maintenance of Portway House in Southwark, south-east London fell below its normal standards as residents endured four years of “poor service and inadequate responses”
highly critical newspaper article appeared in The Observer in August 2018. The HA then commissioned a report
from consultants who found there were 412 defects on the 85-home development. The scheme housed a mix of private and social tenants, as well as shared owners. Faults included a leaking roof and issues with its heating, plumbing and sewage. Water ingress was known about prior to handover and the heating failed within four weeks of residents moving in to their new homes. The consultants reported: “Our main conclusion
is that despite evidence of serious and continuing problems at the scheme, residents suffered poor service and inadequate responses over a sustained period.” They also said the issues that arose at
Mears snaps up its former R&M business rival
Mitie has sold its social housing business which provides repairs and maintenance work to more than 30 landlords, to Mears in a deal believed to be worth up to £35m. It is understood that Mears will pay an initial £22.5m for the business and then a further £12.5m
over the next two years, dependent on the business achieving certain performance milestones. The deal is conditional on Mears completing a
private placement to raise funds to pay for the acquisition, and the TUPE transfer of 1,000 Mitie staff. For the 12-month period ending 31 March,
Portway House had the potential to be replicated at other new build schemes. The association has taken the unusual step of
publishing the consultants’ report along with its own action plan. Its chief executive David Montague, has said “I’m pulling no punches here, we got it wrong, we didn’t fix things when we should have, and as result we let down our residents. We’ve worked hard to put things right. And we’re determined to learn lessons, however painful that is.” Despite residents regularly reporting problems
and making use of the official complaints process, the association’s systems and processes failed them because no-one at L&Q took responsibility for resolving the problems and ensuring lessons were learned.
Mitie made a pre-tax profit of £5m on turnover of £128m. David Miles, group chief executive of Mears, said:
“I am delighted with the acquisition, which will further strengthen Mears’ market leadership and contract profile in social housing. Given our strong operational platform and differentiated service delivery, together with our proven ability to turn around underperforming businesses, I am confident that we will deliver significant improvements to contracts, customers, tenants and employees.”
Landlord issues batches of eviction notices to Kent families
Dozens of families living in the private rented sector in Kent are facing the risk of losing their homes after receiving eviction notices from one of Britain’s most controversial landlords. It is being widely reported that Fergus Wilson has
given 90 households in Ashford just two months to leave their homes, after he decided to sell his portfolio of several hundred properties. Wilson
started sending out the “no fault” Section 21 eviction notices in mid January. Wilson and his wife Judith built up a portfolio of
700 homes across Kent. In recent years the couple have courted controversy by refusing to let houses to people who cook curry and in the long time taken to carry out repairs to tenanted properties. Much of their portfolio is located in or around
Ashford, where the council has a waiting list of about 1,500 households. Evictions from private rentals are now the cause
of over a quarter of the reported cases of homelessness. Last year the Government proposed the possibility of introducing three-year tenancies, to give people greater security, but it has not acted on this yet.
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM February/March 2019 | 25
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