Gove summons five housing associations for a meeting over maladministration findings

Michael Gove has written letters to 10 social landlords following severe maladministration findings made by the Housing Ombudsman, and called five housing associations in for a meeting with the parliamentary under secretary of state for housing.

Gove has summoned Sanctuary Housing, Onward Homes, Hyde Housing, GreensquareAccord and Abri Homes to meet with the parliamentary under secretary of state for housing to discuss their failings.

The secretary of state wrote letters to housing associations and councils with two severe maladministration findings or more on 8 December 2023.

The ten housing associations and councils that Gove sent letters to were Manchester City Council, Stevenage Borough Council, Newham Council, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing, Onward Homes, Abri Homes, Sanctuary Housing, Three Conditions Housing Association (3CHA), Hyde Housing and GreensquareAccord. 

The severe maladministration findings referenced in Gove’s letters included damp and mould issues, “significant failures and prolonged delays” in making repairs and failings relating to the handling of complaints.

In his letter to Onward Homes, Gove stated that the housing association had not made necessary repairs to a vulnerable resident’s heating, which resulted in her being unable to turn it off during the summer months.

Gove stated that in addition to failures to make repairs, Onward’s offer of compensation to the resident was “inadequate”.

Sanctuary Housing Association received a letter from Michael Gove following two severe maladministration findings linked to a resident and their child living in damp and mouldy conditions for over a year and their complaint handling.

The letter stated that “the tragic death of Awaab Ishak has shown that we must not be complacent about issues that have the potential to damage residents’ health”.

Hyde Housing was sent a letter due to “inaction” on damp and anti-social behaviour. The damp issues involved an older resident living in a property affected by damp and mould for 18 months, leaving the resident unable to using their living room.

The antisocial behaviour issue related to a noise complaint which Gove said affected the resident’s mental health, and that Hyde did not “adequately support” the resident. The letter warned “your failings cannot continue”.

Gove wrote to GreensquareAccord regarding six severe maladministration findings, which he said was “quite simply appalling”. The issues raised by Gove included a pest infestation, a noise complaint and a severe maladministration for handling of repairs.

The letter received by Abri Homes was concerning two severe maladminstrations, including a failure to replace faulty windows for almost five years, and issues with damp and mould. Gove acknowledged that Abri had “addressed all the orders and recommendations made by the Ombudsman”, including overhauling damp and mould policies and processes.

See also >> Housing Ombudsman issues ‘highest ever’ total of complaint handling failure orders

See also >> Six complaints made to statistics regulator about ombudsman’s maladministration rate data

Gove’s letters to the housing associations emphasise that The Social Housing Regulation Act, which received royal assent in July 2023, will enforce “a tough new regulatory regime” that will support the Government’s commitment to improving housing standards and holding landlords accountable.

On the Housing Ombudsman’s severe maladministration findings, Ruth Cooke, Chief Executive of GreenSquareAccord, said: “We take complaints very seriously and we are sorry the customers involved in these cases did not receive the level of service they should have.

 “We have fully complied with the Housing Ombudsman’s orders in each case and taken learnings from them forward. This includes apologising to the customers, compensating them, completing any follow-up work required, and updating our policies and procedures.

“Most of the cases the Housing Ombudsman has dealt with reflect the ongoing challenges we faced following our merger in April 2021, when we were still agreeing a single process for handling complaints and bringing together a complex set of policies and procedures across our operational services. We now have a much more robust complaints handling process and many of the challenges identified in these cases are now either resolved or are in the process of being resolved.

“We recently conducted an internal investigation into all cases handled by the Housing Ombudsman with a fresh pair of eyes to review what we would do differently today and test whether the changes we have made go far enough. We continually review and learn from complaints, and we now run regular sessions to share detailed learnings from all complaints with colleagues to help to avoid cases like this in the future.”

Onward Homes responded to the Housing Ombudsman’s severe maladministration finding relating to the issues with a resident’s heating system with the following statement:

“We are very sorry for the difficulties our resident has experienced in this case. We have apologised to our resident and have fully complied with the Ombudsman’s order.”

Onward Homes has committed to putting in place additional checks where a resident contacts them more than once about the same issue, and said they are doing more to support customers who are vulnerable and ensure they provide a timely response. They said changes have also been made to improve their communication with customers at every stage of a complaint, to ensure they have addressed all of their concerns and can make fair and timely offers of compensation.

A Newham Council spokesperson, said: “Since the Housing Ombudsman wrote to us in August 2023, Newham Council has taken numerous actions to improve its performance in responding to cases of damp and mould”.

These measures have included establishing a damp and mould taskforce in 2021 and producing the damp and mould strategy and action plan aimed at tackling damp and mould in council homes, the private rented sector, and temporary accommodation. 

Newham Council has also launched a programme of proactive inspections of council stock, prioritising properties on the basis of building type and risk of damp and mould.

Ralph Facey, Abri’s executive director of operations, said: “The health and safety of our customers is our highest priority. While all works have now been completed, our response to getting the necessary work done in an acceptable timescale, and the handling of the complaints, was not good enough. We are very sorry for the distress and inconvenience experienced by our customers. Since the cases concerned, we have overhauled our approach to damp and mould and improved our handling of complaints.”

Manchester City Council, Stevenage Borough Council, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing, Sanctuary Housing, Three Conditions Housing Association (3CHA) and Hyde Housing have also been contacted for comment. 

Last month, Housing Today revealed that there have been a number of complaints made to the Office for Statistics Regulation about the Housing Ombudsman’s use of maladminstration data to compare landlords.