Gove writes to 14 social landlords for failing their tenants

Several landlords had previously already received letters, including Lambeth Council, whose most recent severe maladministration finding involved a family living in damp and mould for six years.

It was also Mr Gove’s second letter to Ian McDermott, chief executive of Peabody, for a double maladministration finding for Catalyst after a disabled resident and her child were left in a mouldy home for 19 months. The housing secretary had previously written to Mr McDermott when he was the boss of Catalyst.  

In the case of PA Housing, Mr Gove wrote that he was “extremely disappointed” to be writing to the landlord again, describing two further findings of severe maladministration as “extremely concerning”. 

“In the second case, you took a staggering 585 working days to respond to a stage two complaint a resident made concerning a faulty roof,” he wrote. 

“You failed to acknowledge or offer an apology for your failures and, again, did not consider the impact your failures had on the resident. This is simply not acceptable.”

All 14 landlords have been contacted for comment, with statements included below. 

Jay Hayes, portfolio holder for housing at Nottingham Council, said: “I’d like to sincerely apologise on behalf of the council to the resident affected here for the issues she and her family faced as Nottingham City Homes tenants. 

“It’s clear that standards fell well short of where they should have been, and we understand the impact this must have had on their daily lives.

“All recommendations from the Housing Ombudsman have been fully accepted and implemented, and an apology rightly issued on behalf of the authority.

“We took the decision to bring housing management back in-house from April this year, following the previous arm’s-length management arrangements. 

“This has reinforced our need and determination to not just put things right in this case but to introduce the systems and processes to support council staff to get things right first time as part of a broader programme of improvement.”

A spokesperson for Milton Keynes Council said: “We have apologised to our tenant for how we handled this matter, and have since made significant changes within our housing team to improve our response.”

A Westminster Council spokesperson said: “The council fully accepts the findings from the Housing Ombudsman in this case, which dates back to 2021. 

“We have apologised to the resident for the distress caused to them due to our failings.

“We know that the housing services our residents have been receiving have not always been as good as they need to be. 

“The lessons we’ve learnt from this regrettable case have directly informed our service improvements, including how we identify, record and tailor our service to support vulnerable housing residents.

“Earlier this year we introduced a council-wide housing improvement programme. This includes reviewing the repairs process and working with our contractors to significantly improve the service our residents receive. 

“We would like to thank the ombudsman for their engagement with us and with our residents, who recently hosted an event for them to speak directly to residents about the valuable role they play.”

A Notting Hill Genesis spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for the unacceptable length of time it took us to replace the resident’s windows and the serious inconvenience it caused her and her family. Our standards fell way below what we demand. 

“We appreciate the engagement of the secretary of state and will be writing back to explain the steps we have taken to improve our processes following this complaint, as well as reinforcing our commitment to meeting the priorities and expectations of our residents – the core philosophy of our new better together corporate strategy. 

“Any finding of this nature comes as a huge disappointment to us and we will ensure this acts as motivation to get issues like this right first time in future.”

In a statement at the time, Sovereign said: “We are very sorry that in this case we did not handle our customer’s leaky roof as quickly as we should have done or handle his complaint properly. 

“We did not sufficiently consider or act on the fact that our customer was vulnerable. We repeat here the apology to our customer and we have paid compensation. 

“We have reviewed our approach to vulnerable customers so that information is shared at every stage and that any customer’s vulnerability is explicitly considered, especially if they need to move house.”

Sovereign added that it has been working hard to improve the shortcomings found in this case and is continuing to make changes to ensure lessons are learned.

A spokesperson for Metropolitan Thames Valley said: “We accepted the Housing Ombudsman’s findings in full at the time and have apologised to the resident that their complaint was not handled satisfactorily.

“Since this ruling, we have taken steps to improve our complaints handling service to avoid similar occurrences in the future.

“We have responded to Mr Gove’s letter, providing assurance of the learnings from this case and of our commitment to continuously developing and improving the services we provide.”

A spokesperson for Ealing Council said: “Ealing Council strives to provide the best housing service in London. 

“We are committed to providing high-quality housing services to our residents and take complaints and grievances very seriously. 

“However, we acknowledge that in this case, our procedures and communication failed to meet the expected standards. We recognise our shortcomings and the subsequent unacceptable impact on our residents. 

“We sincerely apologised to the tenants affected by the level of service they received. This level of service is not what any tenant should expect from us. 

“As a result, the council took immediate action to overhaul our internal complaint-handling process. We also made access to our service easier for users. In addition, the contractor in question in this case was stood down. 

“We are replacing them with a new contractor to deliver on repairs and meet our residents’ needs.

“The maladministration findings from the Housing Ombudsman service have allowed us to review where our standards of service were not at the levels we expect and this has allowed us to improve the service to benefit all of our residents. 

“Ealing Council prioritises vulnerable tenants and seeks to do our best for our residents. We are rapidly improving our repair service with the new contractor and management to ensure we meet the standards our residents expect.”

Catherine Sayer, leader of Tandridge Council, said: “We recognise there were problems in how we dealt with this long-running case which has stretched over several years and we didn’t fully consider the resident’s needs and vulnerabilities.
“We are sincerely sorry for the distress and inconvenience caused. Compensation was paid to the resident and we continue to work with and support them with their future needs.

“In January 2023, the ombudsman did acknowledge several reasonable adjustments were made during the handling of the case. 

“We have also learnt from this case and have made improvements to ensure our internal processes are as robust as possible, including:  

• Refresher training for all customer-facing staff is to be delivered on safeguarding, vulnerability, equality and diversity and requirements for reasonable adjustments.

• A review of the staffing structure has happened as part of a council wide programme to ensure a dedicated housing officer is assigned to a case. Each case is reviewed monthly by senior officers in the department to ensure necessary support and signposting measures are in place for residents and all options to resolve matters are considered.

• A resident engagement manager has been appointed to oversee all aspects of tenant engagement and will focus on supporting those with vulnerabilities to access council services. The council’s tenant and leaseholder engagement strategy underpins this work.

• The council’s vulnerability policy is on the website as is the equality and diversity scheme, which is currently being reviewed.

• All staff responsible for managing complaints have attended recent training to ensure complaints are managed appropriately and in accordance with best practice and regulation.

• To ensure best practice and meet changes to legislation, the council’s anti-social behaviour process was reviewed in 2022. This process forms part of a council wide enforcement policy due to be completed later this year.  

“In addition we made a referral to the Regulator for Social Housing, who was satisfied with the response and action we have taken and they did not require us to take any further action.”

A spokesperson for Peabody said: “We are terribly sorry we let this resident down in this case. 

“We’ve paid the resident compensation and carried out the full list of recommendations from the ombudsman. 

“Since the complaint in January 2022, we have reviewed and tightened procedures and increased our resources to ensure we are better at handling repairs, managing complaints, keeping our records up to date and, most importantly, communicating with residents.  

“We were involved in the Better Social Housing Review, and the priorities in our refreshed group strategy, published after our merger, are closely aligned with this. 

“We are working to improve overall services for residents at a more local level and are prioritising investment in our existing homes. 

“We are listening and using every opportunity to make things right, learn lessons and improve.”