Gove ‘shames’ major social landlords for letting down tenants

Michael Gove has written public letters to 13 major social housing landlords including Notting Hill Genesis, Hyde and Sovereign following his commitment to “name and shame” those that are guilty of letting down tenants.

The letters by the housing secretary follow findings of severe maladministration against each of the landlords by the independent Housing Ombudsman Service, where they have failed to deal with serious tenant issues in a proper and timely manner.

The letters have gone out to seven housing association and six local authority landlords, including some of the biggest in England, such as Westminster, Lambeth and Camden.

The letters follow the commitment made by Gove last year to highlight poor practice by social housing landlords in a bid to improve the quality of services for tenants. The “name and shame” policy includes publicly highlighting where landlords have received severe maladministration findings, as in these cases, as well as where landlords have breached new consumer standards brought in over the last year.

The letters sent yesterday come after maladministration findings that include a failure by Westminster council to resolve damp and mould in a tenants’ house for two years, despite the fact there was a four month-old child living in the property, and a failure by Notting Hill Genesis to repair a faulty window which posed a safety risk for more than a year and a half.

Yesterday is also the second time that Gove has written to Lambeth council, with the borough found to have left a family in “damp and mouldy conditions” for six years without keeping track of the complaint.

In each of the 13 cases Gove either said the landlord had “failed” or said the level of service delivered was “not acceptable”, and that he would “take a personal interest” in how the landlord acted from now.

A series of scandals over the quality of affordable housing in the last couple of years has seen the government and landlords focus increasingly on investing money into bringing their existing homes up to a better standard. In November last year a two year old, Awaak Ishak, died from exposure to black mould in his council-owned home in Rochdale.

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Gove has said he will block landlords that fail the new consumer standards from receiving grant funding for development, increasing the pressure on housing association to divert capital investment from new build into their existing stock.

Development by large London-based housing associations is expected to fall by a third given these pressures, plus the need to put money into fire safety, the G15 has said.