Number of remedies required by Housing Ombudsman rises 329% in single year
The Housing Ombudsman called on social landlords to provide three times as many remedies in 2023/24 (at 21,740) as in the previous 12 months.
The Ombudsman’s Annual Complaints Review 2023-24 also revealed that it made 5,465 determinations and made 12,738 findings on categories from property condition and anti-social behaviour to record keeping and complaint handling.
The number of landlords with a maladministration rate of more than 75% rose from just 25 in 2022-23 to 126 in 2023-24. This marks an increase of 404% since the previous annual report.
In 2023-24 the Ombudsman made 1.6 maladministration findings per determination, up from 0.9 in the previous year. Recommended compensation meanwhile rose to £4.9m.
Other key figures in the Annual Complaints Review include:
- 73% of decisions resulted in maladministration because the landlord did not follow its legal requirements, policy or process
- There was a 4 percentage point rise in severe maladministration to 856 findings, or 7% of all decisions, with the no fault rate falling from 25% to 15%
- There were 73% of property condition findings upheld, 84% for the handling of the complaint, 68% for anti-social behaviour and 62% for health and safety, including building safety. Every complaint category saw an increase
- The area with the highest proportion of findings upheld was London at 77% compared to the lowest of 62% in the North East and Yorkshire, with every region witnessing an increase
- Nine landlords received more than five failure orders for non-compliance with the Complaint Handling Code or cooperating with investigations.
A full list of landlords with high maladministration rates, as well as more specific individual data, is available here.
The report also highlighted five landlords that have significantly decreased their maladministration rates over the past year and are now sitting below 75% maladministration rate.
Those landlords were:
- Basildon Borough Council from 87% to 64%
- Broadland Housing Association from 78% to 42%
- Cheshire Peaks and Plains Housing Trust from 80% to 38%
- Lewes Council from 80% to 67%
- Southend-on-Sea Council from 83% to 65%
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “These figures are another stark reminder of the scale of the housing emergency and the urgent need for landlords to improve essential services and some living conditions.
“Both our complaint review and satisfaction surveys show that social housing residents deserve better.
“Every day social landlords do vital work and resolve requests successfully. But where things go wrong the causes are consistent: failing to meet statutory requirements or its own policies and procedures, including failing to recognise hazards, protracted repairs, and overlooking disabilities and health needs. These failings are compounded by poor communication, complaint handling and record keeping.”
He added: “Behind every statistic is a resident’s life that has been disrupted by landlord inaction or ineffectiveness. Our cases show this leads to children missing school, reports of declining health or people forced to sleep on sofas or floors.
Blakeway noted that the incoming Decent Homes Standard would set minimum conditions of social homes for the next generation.
“This important and vital programme risks being an unfulfilled promise if landlords do not grip the issues exposed by this review. Social landlords also need to ensure they can focus on improving and investing in existing homes when wanting to help build the thousands of more homes needed,” he said.
Blakeway revealed the Ombudsman is set to publish a Spotlight report on disrepair in early 2025.
Harry Rodd
