Ombudsman investigation into GreenSquareAccord urges landlord to go further after encouraging initial response
3 October 2024
The Ombudsman has released its special report into GreenSquareAccord, focusing on complaint handling, repairs, policy and compensation as areas in need for improvement.
The Housing Ombudsman has urged GreenSquareAccord to further strengthen its complaint handling and address the root causes that give rise to complaints in order to extend fairness to other residents and prevent future complaints.
The investigation found that the landlord had a 93% maladministration rate for complaint handling in the cases reviewed, against a national average of 76%. It also had a maladministration rate of 79% for property condition, compared to a national average of 54%.
The special investigation was initiated under the Ombudsman’s powers to examine whether service failings in a complaint is indicative of wider failures and their impact on residents.
GreenSquareAccord acknowledged many of its failings and has carried out several improvements by creating a new business strategy, revising policies, making changes to governance, undertaking recruitment, and working to change its complaints culture. The landlord’s merger had a significant impact on its handling of complaints and provides valuable lessons to the sector as the trend towards consolidation continues. Following the work between the Ombudsman and the landlord, no severe maladministration findings have been reported since August 2023.
However, the Ombudsman is clear the landlord needs to take further steps to ensure these changes are effective and embed, during a monitoring period which follows the report. The report highlights critical areas of concern, namely property condition and complaint handling.
For the first time in a special investigation, the Ombudsman surveyed residents to gauge the difference recent changes by the landlord are making and examined the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) to provide further analysis where it had concerns, particularly on repairs. For example, the landlord’s own figures show an 88% satisfaction rate over the past few years for repairs, but its TSMs have it at 51.8%.
The resident survey also found that similar issues are still giving rise to dissatisfaction and complaints, and it is important the landlord does not consider these off as historic issues that are now all resolved.
In one complaint featured in the report, a resident communicated a number of issues at the property including damp, mould and no hot water over a period of 2 and a half years. In another case a resident waited more than 2 years for the landlord to complete plastering repairs. These situations both had significant impacts on the residents experience of living in their home, compounded by the landlord’s poor handling of the complaints.
The Ombudsman identified 4 key themes and set out a series of recommendations:
Complaint Handling – There were significant deficiencies in the complaint handling process prior to April 2024, leading to informal complaint handling, delays and barriers to lodging complaints – all of which at odds with the Complaint Handling Code. This often led to residents reporting confusion about which step of the complaint process they were in. The report recommends staff training and policy updates to further align with the statutory Code and restore residents’ trust.
Compensation – The Ombudsman observed the landlord had failed to offer appropriate compensation, sometimes not taking into consideration all aspects of the complaint or the circumstances of the individual making the complaint. In total, on the cases reviewed, the Ombudsman has ordered over 3 times as much compensation as that originally offered. The Ombudsman recommended the landlord classify measurable loss payments, accept third-party duties, and include a wider range of remedies.
Policies, procedures, and governance – Inadequately embedded policies and processes were shown to be associated with deficiencies in complaint management. For example, in many instances where individual circumstances were not taken into account, there was no documentation to support staff to make the correct decisions. The Ombudsman recommended the landlord publish a self-assessment on the recent Spotlight report on Attitudes, Respect and Rights and create a consolidation plan with a prioritisation framework.
Repairs – The landlord’s shortcomings included not registering vulnerabilities during repairs and failing to adapt its approach upon awareness. There were also long delays, a lack of communication throughout the process and no evident learning from these complaints. The report recommends assessing complaint handling procedures for repairs, providing updates on implementation, and training for a new Single Housing Management system to ensure efficient and timely repairs.
The Ombudsman will be working with the landlord on these recommendations and changes are embedding a positive complaint handling culture and improved services for residents over the coming months.
It is also encouraging to see the landlord attend some of the Ombudsman’s free Centre for Learning sessions.
Special investigation report in GreenSqaureAccord (PDF)
GreenSqaureAccord landlord performance report 2022-23 (PDF)
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “The proactive engagement by GreenSquareAccord during this investigation exemplifies its commitment to continuous improvement and learning and to address the root causes of the service failures we found.
“The landlord’s merger was a significant factor in the deficiencies handling complaints, which the landlord has been open about, and it is clear more could have been done to prevent residents having this experience.
“The sector continues to consolidate at pace, and therefore landlords doing so must learn from the experience of this landlord and prioritise complaint handling.
“The landlord’s creation of new policies and procedures is encouraging, and should have a positive impact. But policy and procedure should not be viewed as something to be in place simply because there is a requirement for it to be, and the work involved to embed these changes is not be underestimated.
“The landlord will need to maintain the strong commitment from its leadership to achieve a positive complaints culture, combined with training and supporting its staff through the changes, together with strong quality assurance is in place before it begins to consider the changes successful.
“This report should serve as a catalyst for sector-wide change, promoting a culture of accountability and proactive service improvements, to the benefit of residents and improving the satisfaction with landlords.”
In all special investigation reports, the Ombudsman invites the landlord to provide a learning statement.
GreenSquareAccord learning statement
We recognise and accept the findings of this report and will fully comply with its recommendations. We have welcomed this opportunity to work with the Housing Ombudsman Service to share our progress and gain further learning to take forward.
Getting things right for our customers is our top priority and we will use the learning from this process to drive further improvements and ensure the service our customers receive reflects this fundamental commitment.
We are pleased the Housing Ombudsman Service has recognised the positive changes we have made since the cases explored as part of its investigation. As the report outlines, we now have a much more robust complaints handling process and many of the challenges identified are now either resolved or are in the process of being resolved. Learning from complaints and sharing lessons with colleagues to avoid future cases is now a fundamental part of our work. We are working hard to improve our knowledge and information management and how we recognise, record and respond to vulnerabilities. We have also made significant improvements to our approach to compensation.
Many of the cases included in this investigation were more than two years old and many reflected the ongoing challenges we faced following our merger in April 2021, when we were prioritising improvements to building safety and bringing together our operational services. However, we accept the finding that we could, and should, have made some of these changes more quickly.
We have complied in full with all orders made by Housing Ombudsman Service and will now work alongside them as we comply with its recommendations and provide further assurance that we have a proactive, fair and robust approach to preventing and dealing with complaints.
We recognise we still need to improve, and our refreshed 5-year strategy will see us deliver transformational projects to ensure we simplify and strengthen our organisation, invest in our homes and our people and, crucially, improve our customer offer.