Ombudsman wider orders show how learning from complaints can help landlords to address regulatory concerns

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Complaints are a valuable tool for landlords as the sector actively seeks to improve services. 

“These cases pre-date inspections by the Regulator of Social Housing. While issues identified in inspections will not always be evident in individual complaints, these complaints indicated concerns which were then identified in the inspection.  

“The lessons from these independent reviews offer important insights for those landlords as they transform services.  It also underscores how complaints can be an early indicator of emerging trends or unresolved issues that the landlord needs to grip.

“We know landlords are doing more to learn from complaints.  However, this can still be inconsistent and only in response to our decisions rather than landlords themselves asking if issues could be wider than an individual case. 

“Proactive learning from complaints can prevent resident’s experiencing distress, provide intelligence to the landlord on its services and support landlords to deliver outcomes against regulatory expectations.” 

In all wider order cases, the Ombudsman invites the landlord to provide a learning statement.

Southwark Council

We apologise unreservedly to our residents who were affected by this leak, and for how we handled their complaint and disrepair claim.

While this case was very complex our service was not good enough and we commissioned an independent, external review which was completed in 2024 and has resulted in a number of recommendations and actions for how we can improve.

We have already put in place actions relating to our repairs processes and more joined-up working.  Actions include a new dedicated housing complaints team, improved escalation between repairs and tenancy colleagues, a review of the leaks from above team leading to changes in the structure, and better links between the disrepair team and colleagues dealing with leaks

We are seeing positive results, and will continue to monitor this.

Some of the actions are more wide-ranging relating to our processes and IT systems across the wider council and are being fed into our wider improvement project.

We take this finding seriously, have taken action and continue to make more changes and are committed to learning from this and continuing to improve our services.

Wandsworth Council 

We have made significant changes since the issues occurred in this case, and following the determination in July 2024, to prevent the same, or similar issues, from reoccurring we have:

• made staff changes within the area housing team

• delivered training to the council’s o-operatives on complaint handling, communication, and repairs

• undertaken a review of the process in place for co-operatives to report, raise, and process repairs with that updated standardised process shared with them

• acquired a new software application to help programme and deliver annual roof inspections
• introduced a new standing agenda item at the co-operative forum to review complaint outcomes and lessons learned 

Notting Hill Genesis

Our handling of the repairs needed to the resident’s home, along with the failures in the subsequent complaints process, were unacceptable and fell below the level of service we aim to provide.

We are acutely aware of the potential dangers of persistent damp and mould and acknowledge that in this case we failed to act for an unreasonable amount of time, which meant we both left the tenant living in an unhealthy and uncomfortable environment, but also broke our own damp and mould policy.

Although this investigation arose from one resident’s case, we were asked to undertake a broader review of our policies and procedures which we welcomed. This wider review has enabled us to make meaningful improvements to our processes that benefit all residents.

This included action to proactively identify and quickly remedy any presence of damp and mould. Beyond that, we have committed £770m through our Better Together strategy to improve the quality of our homes.

We have also introduced a new dedicated complaints department to offer greater independence from the team directly involved, as well as to reduce pressure on local officers and free up more of their time to provide support to their residents.

We are committed to learning from cases where our service fell short and working with the ombudsman to ensure the improvements we introduce make a real difference to our residents.

Newham Council 

Our commitment is to ensure safe and quality housing for our residents, addressing any issues promptly, effectively, and with empathy. We sincerely apologise for not meeting our high standards in this case. 

We fully acknowledge the Ombudsman’s findings and have complied with all the orders and recommendations issued. We have also completed all works to the property and carried out a post inspection to ensure the completion of work. Additionally, we conducted a thorough service review into the case, including lessons learned which was shared with relevant services.  

Following the determination, we published a comprehensive Repairs Policy to enhance the efficiency and transparency of our repair processes. We have also established a proactive strategy to ensure repairs are completed adequately and to a satisfactory standard. This includes: 

• a proposed new process will include a post inspection by a surveyor, which will assess the quality of work undertaken. It will also include a further periodic reviews to ensure no further problems are being experienced by the resident 

• the business is developing a new case management system that will deliver improved tracking of damp and mould cases, as well as performance data enabling greater insight on the effectiveness of our process

• as part of health and safety training, field operatives have had refresher training to identify any living conditions in the home that may impact on the resident, including their health and safety and to report back to their manager any concerns, so that housing officers can be alerted to investigate

This approach is consistent with the broader Housing Services Improvement Plan that was established following the C4 regulatory judgement in October 2024.