Ombudsman launches special investigations into three London landlords

He added: “Safe and secure social housing has never been more important and the learning from these reports will help strengthen the landlords’ approach to important areas and improve outcomes for residents.

“We will work with the landlord after the reports to ensure the recommendations are embedded and that change is reflected in the complaints that do or do not come to us.”

In response to the investigation, Hyde said: “We’re sorry that we’ve let some of our customers down and we’re taking every complaint we receive extremely seriously. We’re looking forward to working with the Housing Ombudsman and welcome the opportunity to reflect on where we’ve got things wrong.

“We’ll also be able to demonstrate how we’ve changed, so that we’re listening to customers, and working with them to improve their services, by putting their needs first.”

The landlord said it spent an extra £2m on addressing damp and mould issues last year and has streamlined its complaint-handling process and hired more workers.

Hackney Council said: “We recognise and apologise that at times the service we have provided our residents has not met the standards we expect and they deserve.

“Changes we have introduced over the last 18 months to the way we work is resulting in faster response times for completing repairs and tackling leaks as well as damp and mould. We have made a commitment to inspect reports of damp and mould within five days and to visit reports of leaks by the end of the next day.

“While we face many challenges including maintaining and repairing an ageing housing stock, our work towards fully achieving both of these targets is reflected by an improvement across all of our tenant satisfaction measures. However, we know we still have more to do.”

Hackney said it will work with the sector watchdog to continue to build on these recent improvements.

Meric Apak, cabinet member for better homes at Camden Council, said: “After years of underfunding from government, councils with large housing stocks like ours have been stretched to the limit and resources have been overwhelmed. 

“However, we have not shied away. Instead, we have set up new teams to tackle damp and mould, and to make repairs. We welcome the opportunity to work with the ombudsman at this crucial time, as we establish higher standards across our services.”

The council said it established a dedicated damp and mould team last year that has worked on more than 6,000 homes. This team has helped to resolve the issues raised by the ombudsman.