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Empowering staff key to improving housing service delivery


T


he Housing Ombudsman has released its special investigation report into Islington Council, finding that underlying issues such


as a ‘disjointed’ approach to complaints and a ‘lack of clear ownership’ are leading to problems driſting and persisting. In the report, the Ombudsman issued 89


findings across 30 determinations. In every case the Ombudsman upheld at least one aspect of the resident’s complaint and in almost half of cases found severe maladministration on at least one of the issues raised by the resident. Te council landlord has fully accepted the


Ombudsman’s findings and recommendations. It now has a severe maladministration rate of 24.7% which is nearly four times the national average of 6.7%. Among the cases was a disabled resident unable


to use their ground floor wet room for months due to a lack of repairs while another resident’s complaint was stuck in the landlord’s system for three years. Another complaint saw a resident with mental health problems stuck without a working key fob for her building for ten months, something that should have been resolved within 24 hours. In every case concerning complaint handling the


Ombudsman found maladministration, while the landlord’s 83% maladministration rate for property condition was above the national average and the 94% for complaints about anti-social behaviour was far above the national average of 52%. Overall, the Ombudsman made 186 orders


or recommendations to put things right. Te Ombudsman identified three key themes and set out a series of recommendations: • Disrepair – Tere were unreasonable delays within repairs in terms of both acknowledgement and taking action to resolve the issues. Te Ombudsman also found that ineffective appointments were a key factor causing delay and inconvenience and disrespected the value of residents’ time. Communication was another poor aspect of repair jobs, with examples including limited notice period of operatives attending, not keeping the resident updated or not notifying the resident they are attending at all. Among its recommendations, the Ombudsman has told the landlord to review its policies to


The Ombudsman has recommended all staff undertake mandatory complaint handling training


include a risk assessment specifically with vulnerabilities in mind.


• Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) – Te landlord approached noise reports using its ASB policies and procedures but could not demonstrate it followed them. Sometimes long-term patterns of disturbance went unresolved. If the landlord deemed the problem not to meet certain policy thresholds, it offered no alternatives. Te Ombudsman also found that oſten the landlord did not conduct monthly reviews of its cases or work with third parties. Tere was also a lack of enforcement, poor communication and poor records and documents relating to ASB. Te Ombudsman has recommended the landlord self-assess against its Spotlight report on noise and improve monitoring of compliance by officers on its policies in this area.


• Complaint Handling – Te landlord does not do enough to promote its complaints process to residents nor learn from complaints that


do make it through the process. Until March 2022, the landlord operated an unnecessarily protracted complaint process which has now been amended to two stages. Aſter these delays, which were sometimes measured in years, the responses were of poor quality and contained statements it could not back up with evidence. Tis oſten led to the landlord not recognising where it has failed and therefore not offering sufficient redress for the distress and inconvenience caused. A lack of sincere apologies also fostered more feelings of distrust. Te Ombudsman has recommended all staff undertake mandatory complaint handling training and for the organisation to appoint a Member Responsible for Complaints to improve oversight.


• Underlying cross-cutting issues – Troughout all of the above, underlying cultural issues within the landlord continually let it down. Tis included being reactive rather than proactive, a clear lack of ownership or responsibility taken and poor record keeping across the board.


Richard Blakeway, housing ombudsman, said: “Te landlord has taken action in several areas, has sought to monitor the effectiveness of these additional measures and has been able to provide clear evidence of the impact these are having. “Te focus of the leadership on embedding


change is evident and encouraging. Nonetheless, many of the underlying themes we have identified are present in multiple individual cases, each contributing to the resident’s poor experience. “Te way in which the same issues recur


indicates failure to learn from complaints. We have also identified a lack of managerial oversight to ensure that officers are appropriately capable and empowered to follow the policies, procedures and guidance that the landlord does have in place “Record keeping needs fundamental


improvement and the recommendations set out in our Knowledge and Information Management report will be of particular interest. We will continue to monitor the compliance with the recommendations set out in this report and will work with the landlord to help embed those improvements for residents.”


Big jump in build-to-rent starts in London


Nearly 7,000 build-to-rent homes were started in London in 2022 according to a Greater London Authority (GLA) report, representing a massive 50% increase in starts over the previous year.


However, there was a 42% decrease in


completions between 2021 and 2022, driven by a 60% reduction in homes completed in London. Between Q4 in 2019 and Q2 in 2023, build-to-


12 | HMMDecember/January 2024 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


rent providers were the largest buyer of new market homes on large developments in London. However, sales fell in late 2022 and the first half of 2023, when they accounted for 29% of total sales. Figures from the GLA’s latest annual monitoring


report show that 38,202 homes were added to the housing stock in total in 2021/22, up 13.5% on the 33,656 started in 2020/21.


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