Housing Ombudsman completes investigation into Wandle following constructive process
22 July 2025
Housing Ombudsman completes investigation into Wandle following constructive process
We have completed our investigation into Wandle, following a constructive engagement process.
At this stage we are satisfied the landlord has recognised and responded to the issues identified with its complaints handling. It has an improvement plan with timescales and oversight and scrutiny arrangements.
We launched our investigation into Wandle due to the landlord’s high maladministration rate. This included cases involving severe maladministration. This was over 89% and later the landlord reported its Tenant Satisfaction Measure for complaint handling in 2023-24 was 12.6%.
We reviewed our casework and identified that complaint handling was a repeated issue. We wrote to the landlord, set out our analysis, and requested evidence. We also met with the landlord to discuss this analysis.
We are not publishing a report at this stage. We used a new approach to our investigation powers that lets us work directly with landlords to fix problems. This allows us to be more responsive to repeated issues emerging from our casework and engage with more landlords. It also promotes proactive learning to prevent future complaints.
We will provide more information about this new approach in the autumn as part of a new regular report. We will also share learning from other landlords where we have applied this approach to prevent future service failure.
We will continue to monitor Wandle to make sure there is positive change for residents.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “We welcome the landlord’s positive engagement with us. Our casework showed clear and consistent concerns arising from complaints, which it has recognised, and it has set out how it is learning from those complaints to address the issues our investigations had identified.
“Under our new approach to using further investigation powers, we aim to raise concerns with more landlords more quickly.
“This is part of our work to encourage landlords to proactively learn from complaints, join the dots between individual cases, develop their analysis of root causes and make using complaints to support continuous improvement a positive, routine exercise.”
Wandle learning statement: “We’re pleased that the Housing Ombudsman has agreed our improvements to complaints processes are appropriate and closed the investigation.“The Ombudsman’s approach allowed us to be open about the areas we’re working on, and the experience was constructive and aligned with our goal to deliver better outcomes for our customers.
“We appreciated the Ombudsman’s review of steps taken, and the associated future actions. Being able to discuss these was a valuable part of the process. Our complaint handling service improvement project continues, building on progress and plans already made, and we are actively monitoring its delivery to make sure that targeted improvements are realised during the current year.”