Industry News
Ombudsman inspection report urges Lambeth Council to tackle cause of complaints to create meaningful change
T
he Housing Ombudsman has released its inspection report into Lambeth Council, finding that despite improvements made,
these have not been “seen and felt by its residents”. An inspection was launched by the Ombudsman
aſter it remained dis-satisfied at information provided by the landlord in response to its orders about complaint handling. Te inspection allowed the Ombudsman to
hear from complaint handling staff directly and understand the pressures the landlord is facing, as well as identify inconsistencies in handling complaint effectively. Tis additional insight has been invaluable. Te inspection found a lack of consistency
in various aspects of the landlord’s complaint handling, including 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. Furthermore, several members of staff told
the Ombudsman different things about the same processes of closing complaints. While good progress has been made in some
parts of the complaint handling, for example reducing overdue complaints from 2,283 in April 2022 to 154 in November 2023, the landlord is not resourced to adequately respond to the complaints it is handling through its existing process. Tis 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. Te inspection also found a need for the landlord
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. Te landlord’s focus on the volume of
outstanding complaints also meant its approach to learning from complaints and root cause analysis is underdeveloped. 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. Te landlord also carried out its own internal
review following our investigation and has built on some of the findings, which was welcomed by the Ombudsman. Te Ombudsman will continue to hold the
landlord to account through its casework and will review the landlord’s performance in its next annual report, which is produced for all landlords the Ombudsman handles several complaints. Richard Blakeway, housing ombudsman,
said: “Tis inspection happened because two residents had to seek the Ombudsman’s intervention more than once to resolve complaints that we had previously upheld. Te landlord must ensure this is not repeated.”
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
“Tere are already positive signs. Te
Ombudsman has not issued 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.” “Tere are already positive signs. Te
Ombudsman has not issued 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.”
Wigan and Woking councils breach regulator’s safety standards
Te Regulator of Social Housing has concluded that both Wigan and Woking councils have breached the consumer standards as a result of failings in their on-going safety work to tenants’ homes. Trough its engagement with each council, the
RSH has confirmed that they failed to meet a range of health and safety requirements in a large number of their tenanted homes. Wigan Council did not carry out annual gas
safety inspections in over 1,000 homes. It had installed around 16,000 carbon monoxide detectors
in tenants’ homes, but failed to install them in another 10,000. It also reported that around 275 homes did not have valid electrical inspection certificates and that over 150 high-risk fire safety actions were overdue. Woking Borough Council had completed
fire risk assessments for the majority of flatted blocks requiring them, but the RSH found there were more than 400 overdue safety actions from the assessments. In addition, the council was unable to confirm whether smoke detectors
20 | HMMFebruary/March 2024 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
are installed in over a quarter of its tenants’ homes. Wigan Council and Woking Borough Council
have both put programmes in place to address these issues. Te RSH has said it will continue to monitor each council as they carry out this work. Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement
at RSH, said: “Wigan Council and Woking Borough Council both failed to meet our consumer standards and need to put things right promptly for tenants.” “It is vital that all social landlords have
accurate, up-to-date health and safety data and use it to ensure their tenants’ homes are safe. As well as our ongoing investigations, we will be out on the front foot from next April inspecting landlords to make sure they are providing good-quality homes and services.”
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