Ombudsman orders six-figure payout to more than 100 residents after ‘prolonged period of decline’ at giant social landlord

As a result of its findings, the ombudsman set out nearly 500 remedies for L&Q to put right, including apologising to residents and repairs. 

While the landlord has since developed an action plan in response to the report, the ombudsman said it “remains cautious”, with a similar flurry of new policies "having little to no impact on residents’ lived experience or service delivery". 

L&Q told Inside Housing that it recognises it has got things wrong and welcomes “this extremely valuable learning process”. Additionally, its chief executive has personally apologised to those affected. 

As part of that process, the ombudsman highlighted six key themes running throughout the complaints.

These included a lack of listening to residents by L&Q and repeated failure to respond fairly to vulnerable residents, especially where the resident had a disability or mental health problems.

On complaint-handling, the ombudsman said there is a disconnect between policy and practice as “complaint responses demonstrated little empathy and in some cases being overtly dismissive, heavy-handed and lacking respect”. 

Despite the landlord’s standalone compensation policy, there were repeated examples of L&Q not awarding compensation in a fair, reasonable or consistent way.

The investigation found that the association did not follow its own ASB policy, which exposed vulnerable residents to ASB, and did not accurately record when a resident was vulnerable or needed additional support. 

On repairs and damp and mould, the landlord was criticised for repeated failures in the cases investigated to meet obligations under the Landlord and Tenant Act and was slow to identify and respond to hazards. 

At the same time, L&Q was unable to consistently identify damp and mould as the root cause of many of its disrepair cases, leading to an overall failure to consider the presence and seriousness of the problem. 

Among its recommendations, the ombudsman called on L&Q to design monitoring criteria to track performance and implement quality assurance checks, as well as review its equalities information to ensure the diverse communities it serves are being appropriately served. 

Training for all staff on service adjustment needs, a review of staff objectives and recruitment on customer focus and values are also needed, alongside mechanisms for possible disciplinary action where courtesy and respect is found to be at fault.

In addition, the landlord needs to design monitoring criteria to ensure its repairs programme remains on track and to improve its record keeping.

Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: “While the landlord makes a significant contribution to housing and has many committed staff, the scale of the findings in this report are indicative of a period of significant failure in its services.

“Resident concerns were repeatedly dismissed or poorly handled, without the respect they or their issues deserved. Crucially, the needs of vulnerable residents were not always identified, and too often this caused serious detriment and risk to them.

“The landlord consistently failed to take sufficient action on its own monitoring and warning signs that were evident in its complaints and independent reviews – leading to a prolonged period of decline, especially in areas like repairs and complaints handling.

“Rather than address the core issues, the landlord continued to firefight individual issues. This resulted in new policies, initiatives and reports, which failed to resolve its cultural failures in areas like repairs and complaints, resulting in these activities having little impact on service delivery. 

“This has led to a decline in professionalism, with dedicated and committed staff being let down by the poor culture and professionalism of others.”

Mr Blakeway said the ombudsman welcomes the steps that L&Q is taking in response to the findings, but urged it to go further to “embed change” and not get distracted by “the illusion of activity”.

L&Q has around 250,000 residents in 105,000 properties, one of the largest in the sector, and Mr Blakeway said he hoped that other landlords could learn from the report, especially ones looking to merge and expand.

He added: “We’ve seen when landlords go through organisational change such as a merger that problems with complaints and systems occur. There is a need to ensure that growth is compatible and sustainable with decent resident services.”

In response, Fiona Fletcher-Smith, group chief executive at L&Q, said: “My senior leadership colleagues and I are personally contacting the residents whose complaints the ombudsman judged to have involved service failure or maladministration on our part.

“We have apologised for the completely unacceptable service they have received. L&Q has let them down, and I’m truly sorry for that. What really matters to us is putting things right for residents and using the report’s learnings to correct historic failings.”

Ms Fletcher-Smith explained that the period of complaints investigated by the ombudsman was a time when services were severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. 

She said the ombudsman had acknowledged the five-year improvement and investment plan she had put in place since becoming chief executive in 2021.

The measures introduced by L&Q include a £3bn, 15-year major works investment programme, an increase in frontline staff of 30%, and improvements to its repair service that have delivered a 20% increase in ‘first-time fix’ on day-to-day repairs.

Ms Fletcher-Smith added: “I welcome both our residents’ and the ombudsman’s input on how we can further strengthen, accelerate and embed the positive changes we’re making.”