Independent review at Peabody finds 180 families decanted for lengthy periods following Ombudsman wider order
29 August 2024
An independent review into repairs and decants ordered by the Housing Ombudsman has provided 31 recommendations for Peabody to improve services.
An independent review into repairs and decants ordered by the Housing Ombudsman has provided 31 recommendations for Peabody to improve services.
The review, called a wider order, was made using new powers that require landlords to take steps to prevent future service failure by improving its policy or practice. These powers are part of a range of interventions the Ombudsman uses to address areas of repeated service failure. The order also helps residents who may not have complained but have experienced similar failings.
These reviews can be used where the Ombudsman is seeking significant improvement alongside the potential use of other powers, such as special investigations.
The review followed an investigation by the Ombudsman into a resident’s complaint where her family were placed in hotel rooms for a year and a half. It is unclear whether the resident’s home met the landlord’s voids standard before it was let and her vulnerabilities were not fully recognised which led to significant distress and loss of enjoyment for the resident. Its handling of the case led to repeated delays because not all repairs were included in the schedule of works and inadequate post-work inspections led to the resident returning to the property with issues outstanding.
The independent review identified 180 other residents decanted since February 2021 for damp and mould, 6 of whom have been decanted for more than 300 days.
It found failings in the landlord’s decant policy, which was not properly followed and meant the landlord acted without empathy and effective communication and proposed a review of the type of accommodation provided for decanted tenants.
The review also found poor planning on repairs, poor quality work, lack of ownership and coordination between teams, and mixed surveying competence.
While it noted that culturally many staff members were helpful and resident focused, others had been less so. It found multiple contractors giving their view to the tenant and the resident’s direct involvement in managing contractors and the scope of work led to delays and confusion – an area the Ombudsman is examining in its next Spotlight report with the call for evidence currently open.
Among the 31 recommendations put forward by the independent review were for the landlord to:
- at the start of the tenancy make a formal assessment of any mental health or other issues, based on expert advice as to how the landlord can best take account of these issues
- review and expand the Vulnerable Persons Policy, including learning from this case and the findings and recommendations of the Ombudsman’s Spotlight report on attitudes, Respect and Rights
- consider reviewing its repairs surveying competence and/or of the adequacy of its framework, such as procedures (including in relation to documenting findings), guidelines, training and supervision
- establish a policy in relation to sharing with tenant’s copies of survey reports relating to their property
- review the communication plan a surveyor has with the resident before, during and after the works are completed to ensure that all parties are aware of the works being carried out, why and what resolution looks like
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “These explorative reviews into landlords’ practices beyond the initial complaint uncover fundamental changes that are needed to improve residents’ lives in the future.
“The review is clear about the weaknesses in approach which could impact other residents and we will continue to work with the landlord to see how it embeds the recommendations. The landlord is open about the improvements it is making and only by making these changes will the need for residents to raise future complaints be reduced.
“There is plenty of learning in this for other landlords too, in particular around extended decants, voids and the sign-up process for lettings.
“We are using these powers as part of a wider package of measures to ensure landlords are learning lessons from complaints and joining the dots between failings in different cases.
“It is also positive that the landlord is involving residents in the review of the report and we would encourage that engagement to continue as it looks to improve its response to repairs and complaints handling.”
Ian McDermott, Chief Executive of Peabody, said: “We didn’t give this resident the level of service we’re striving for and we’re very sorry we let her down. We apologised to her in person, paid her compensation, and have completed all the repairs needed in her home.
“We’ve changed a lot at Peabody in the past few years. We’ve made significant changes to our structure and the way we operate, with local teams now in place to support residents in their neighbourhoods. We’re more focused than ever on ensuring every resident’s home is safe and well maintained from the day they move in, and that we keep disruption to a minimum for residents by doing repairs swiftly and efficiently. It’s this approach that is seeing us spend an average of £1m per day on homes.
“Both the ombudsman and independent report we commissioned have shed light on areas where we fell short and where we still need to improve, and we will carry on working hard to address these shortcomings. We’re improving our repairs services and how we communicate with residents, especially when there are issues. These priorities, along with the recommendations from the reports, are at the core of our plans for improvement and overall change. We’ll keep revisiting these plans to make sure we’re continuing to make progress and maintain high standards for residents.”