Half of complaints raised in London, as Ombudsman shares lessons for landlords

The Housing Ombudsman has released its latest Insight report, looking into complaints within Greater London. The report comes as 47% of the cases determined by the Ombudsman in 2023-24 were from residents living in a London postcode.

This rate is disproportionate, given just under one in six homes in the Ombudsman’s membership is located within Greater London. No other region of England has such a wide gap between the proportion of social housing and complaints.

In line with the acute housing crisis in the capital, most indicators reveal poorer outcomes in London for residents with the Ombudsman’s severe maladministration rate at 9.3% compared with 7.4% for the rest of the country and an overall  maladministration rate of 77% compared to 68.5% for England. The uphold rate on property condition, including repairs and health and safety, is also the highest in the country. This is despite more homes meeting the Decent Homes Standard in the capital.

The report sets out the challenging operating environment for social landlords, including working with third parties like managing agents and historic underinvestment in homes, alongside the need for improvements by landlords in communication, record management and oversight of repair services.

Included in the case studies is one on building safety, in which the landlord failed to provide timely information on fire safety measures and cladding on the building. In another case on decants, the Ombudsman did not uphold the complaint because the landlord went beyond its obligations to address concerns about parking.

In this report, the Ombudsman has provided learning and case studies on a range of topics under two main banners of quality of homes and quality of customer service.

Read the report

Amongst the learning themes are:

• A positive complaints culture starts from the top – it is crucial leadership and governance are seen to support the complaints function.
• It is important a landlord does not lose sight of the person at the centre of a protracted issue, does not blame them for the situation, and there is a continuous assessment of whether the remedial actions taken remain appropriate or whether a decant is now necessary.
• Landlords need to be clear on their role and responsibilities and proactive working with third parties, with robust service agreements in place.
• Complaint handling is a landlord’s opportunity to regain a resident’s trust after they have had a bad experience. It is far more than just ascertaining what the service failure is and rectifying that situation
• Insight and intelligence from complaints should be used strategically. This ranges from effective root cause analysis of casework through to identifying risks and horizon scanning.

Outside Greater London, other landlords should also take note of the recommendations and learning points, especially in other urban areas, as they provide vital indicators of where things go wrong and how to stop that from happening.