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London landlord faces ombudsman probe as complaint-handling under spotlight
The boss of a London landlord admitted its complaint-handling has not been what residents “deserve” after the ombudsman launched a special investigation into the association.
Wandle Housing Association, which operates around 7,000 homes across south London, has been found to have a maladministration rate of 89%.
The Housing Ombudsman said the figure is “comparatively high” for the landlord’s size, which is a ”cause for concern".
As part of its probe, the ombudsman said it will “explore whether complaints are indicative of wider failure within the landlord”.
It will also look at whether Wandle is complying with the complaint-handling code.
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The landlord has already been identified by the ombudsman on two separate occasions within the past three months, alongside a string of other housing providers.
This was for its approach to moving residents temporarily and its handling of leaks in homes.
Anne Waterhouse, chief executive of Wandle, said: “We recognise that our complaint-handling hasn’t been what our residents deserve and are committed to putting this right – as we’ve demonstrated in our recent complaint-handling report and residents annual report.”
She said a project group has been launched to “look at some of the causes of our poor performance in complaint-handling”.
Ms Waterhouse added that the landlord wants to listen to its residents’ ideas about “where we can do more to deliver consistently good outcomes”.
Last year Ms Waterhouse joined Wandle from A2Dominion, where she had spent 16 years in a variety of senior roles.
At the time, Valerie Vaughan-Dick, chair of Wandle, said: “Anne joins Wandle with a proven track record in the housing sector, and clearly has the skills and passion that will support our purpose and deliver our ambitious strategy.
“Anne will work with our executive team to further enhance our financial resilience, invest in both our existing properties and new homes across south London, and deliver sustained improvements in our customer services.”
Wandle currently has a G1/V2 rating with the Regulator of Social Housing.
It returned to the top grade for governance in November last year after the English regulator said it had “improved the quality of its stock condition information”.
In its last full-year to the end of March 2024, the association reported an 86% drop in post-tax surplus to £3.5m despite seeing a rise in turnover. Its bottom line was affected by higher operating costs and a negative movement in the fair value of financial instruments.
This summer, Rebecca Escott-New, a former director at Crisis, was appointed as the landlord’s first executive director of corporate services.
Wandle was formed in 1967 and originally known as the Merton Family Housing Trust.
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