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Government launches campaign to encourage social housing tenants to complain about poor-quality housing
The government is launching a new advertising campaign to encourage social housing tenants to complain about sub-standard housing.
The campaign will see advertisements broadcast on national radio stations, popular music streaming services and social media, with residents encouraged to complain to their landlord in the first instance before escalating the issue to the Housing Ombudsman if they are unhappy.
The announcement is the latest in a flurry, which will also include mandatory deadlines for fixing damp and mould under a new ‘Awaab’s Law’ and mandatory qualifications for social housing managers.
The national campaign will involve adverts using images of black mould and leaking ceilings run across social media platforms broadcast in more than six languages.
The campaign will also fund training for Citizens Advice staff in two pilot areas – London and the North West – so they can support more residents who have problems in their homes.
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Housing secretary Michael Gove said: “Too many social housing tenants are being let down and ignored. This government is determined to stand up for them and give them a proper voice. They deserve a decent, safe and secure home, just like everybody else.
“So we are shining a light on rogue landlords that ignore their tenants time and again and allow families to live in disrepair.
“This campaign will make sure tenants know their rights and how to make a complaint – giving them the confidence to go to the ombudsman and ensure action is taken.”
Social housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa said: “What we’ve learnt is that social housing in the UK is far from where it should be, and tenants have been monumentally let down whilst enduring terrible living conditions.
“It’s clear things must change – this campaign is the start of that. The campaign makes clear that disrepair issues from damp and mould to collapsed ceilings must be fixed. Tenants have a right to complain and be listened to, treated with dignity, fairness and respect but most of all live in a house they can call a home.”
The campaign will run across England from today until the end of April and will give tenants key information about their rights and the responsibilities of their landlord, and step-by-step advice about how to make a complaint via a bespoke government web page.
Adverts will run across commercial radio stations including Capital, Gold, Heart, Hits Radio, Kiss, Magic, Smooth and dozens more. They will be broadcast on streaming platforms such as Spotify, Amazon Music and SoundCloud and will be targeted towards social housing residents on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and NextDoor.
Translated versions on stations broadcasting in Arabic, Polish, Romanian, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali will also run.
Findings from the government’s social housing resident panel – which brings together more than 200 residents across the country – found that 65% of members said their experiences of raising complaints with their landlord had been unsatisfactory, the government announcement said.
Residents raised concern about the time taken for complaints to be addressed and resolved, and disrespectful conduct, lack of communication or inaccuracy of information experienced during previous complaints process.
Almost a third of all social renters considered making a complaint in 2020-21, but 27% chose not to because they thought nothing would be done in response, according to figures from the English Housing Survey, the government said.
This morning Mr Gove also raised concerns about Lambeth Council’s “failure to handle complaints”, following a severe maladministration finding from the Housing Ombudsman earlier this month.
The ombudsman has called on the council to “radically improve”, with the judgement coming a year after a special report into numerous failures by the landlord.
Lambeth had said it “fully accepts that the service we provided fell below our usual standards”. It added that it had “resolved the original problems reported at each property”.
Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “Effective complaint-handling starts with landlords getting things right first time. If and when things do go wrong, landlords must fix the issue, apologise, offer appropriate compensation, and show they have learnt from those errors.
“If that doesn’t happen then residents can take their complaint to us at the Housing Ombudsman. We’re free, independent and impartial in order to help residents and landlords find a resolution to their complaint.”
The long-awaited Social Housing (Regulation) Bill will strengthen the powers of the Regulator of Social Housing – allowing it to enter properties with only 48 hours’ notice, make emergency repairs with landlords footing the bill and issue unlimited fines.
It comes 12 years after a government – which included Mr Gove – passed the Localism Act 2011, placing a tough legal bar on the regulator’s power to get involved in ‘consumer’ complaints and focusing its work on economic regulation instead.
They were warned at the time that doing so “will leave tenants and groups of tenants without the protection they need against incompetent landlords”, according to the author of a government-commissioned report into social housing regulation.
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