Housing Ombudsman calls for ‘single vision of fair compensation’ across the sector
3 February 2026
We have released our latest ‘learning from severe maladministration’ report. The report focuses on compensation awards.
We have released our latest ‘learning from severe maladministration’ report. The report focuses on compensation awards.
It is accompanied by new compensation guidance setting out the key principles for a fair approach to compensation, make clear expectations and encourage consistency. This guidance will be effective from 1 April 2026.
We engaged with landlords and residents to produce this guidance. We spoke to landlords about their experiences through our landlord forums. We took residents comments from our Resident Panel and our casework to feed into the final document.
The report is split into 3 sections. The first looks at landlords’ not applying their own compensation policies correctly. In this section we see a landlord failing to offer compensation despite a resident and her 4 year old child living in damp and mould for 3 years.
The second section looks at when landlords increase the compensation after its stage 2 response. This misses the opportunity to put things right for the resident at an earlier stage. One landlord offered over £2,000 more in compensation when the complaint was referred to us.
The final section examined the difference between our orders and the landlord’s offer. Sometimes the difference was significant. For example, we offered 10 times the compensation to a resident living with a leak for years because the landlord’s award was so low.
In each case, our compensation is not punitive or regulatory fine but seeks to put residents back in the position they would’ve been had service failings not happened.
Learning from severe maladministration report
The landlords mentioned in this report are:
- Basildon Council
- Clarion
- Cornwall Council
- Freebridge Community Housing
- Hexagon Housing Association
- Home Group
- Hyde Housing Association
- Karibu Community Homes
- L&Q
- London Borough of Haringey
- London Borough of Kingston
- London Borough of Lambeth
- London Borough of Southwark
- Peabody
- Riverside
- Stonewater
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Compensation is emotive.
“When times are hard and budgets tight, for both residents and landlords, this can drive the wrong behaviours. It can result in residents expecting unrealistic redress for failings. Or organisations being institutionally reluctant to compensate.
“There should be a single vision of fair compensation shared across the sector.
“At the heart of compensation is fairness. Individual circumstances will lead to different awards but the core principles driving decision-making should be common.
“Non-financial orders, like apologies, matter greatly too. But fair compensation can go a substantial way towards restoring trust amongst residents and prevent complaints escalating to us.
“A virtuous cycle of improving complaint handling and proactive learning to prevent complaints will longer-term also reduce the need for compensation.”