Housing Ombudsman's orders against social landlords triple year-on-year

The Housing Ombudsman made 21,740 orders for social landlords to put things right for their residents in 2023/24, representing a more than threefold increase compared to the previous year.

In 2022/23, the Ombudsman issued 6,590 orders and recommendations to put things right.

In addition, the Ombudsman’s annual complaints review for 2023/24 revealed that the amount of compensation ordered or recommended by the Ombudsman has quadrupled compared to the previous year, increasing from £1.1m in 2022/23 to £4.9m.

The report said the rise “reflects the severity of some of the issues we have seen, with residents only finding out about their rights to bring a complaint to us 10 years after living in damp and mould”.

As a result, residents have received substantial compensation payments to account for the level of the landlord’s failings.

>> See also: Landlords struggling with damp and mould repairs timescales, Ombudsman finds

>> See also: New Homes Ombudsman Service appoints former HSBC director as new chief ombudsman

However, the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) stressed, “We are always proportionate in our offers and these offers are not meant to be punitive.”

The Ombudsman made 8,619 maladministration findings during the year, with 73% of all decisions resulting from landlords failing to adhere to legal requirements, policies, or processes.

Severe maladministration findings as a percentage of all decisions rose four percentage points to 7%..

Property condition was the highest complaint category, followed by complaint handling, and then anti-social behaviour.

For property condition, 73% of findings were 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 has seen an increase.

Nine landlords received more than five failure orders for non-compliance with the Complaint Handling Code, which became mandatory in April this year.

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.”

Blakeway 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.”

He emphasised that “this could be avoided with more investment into existing homes, improved systems and technology and stronger service management.”

He noted that the annual complaints review shows the scale of the HOS’ intervention, “We are making more remedies and, using our wider orders powers, these are becoming more far reaching to put things right for other residents impacted and prevent complaints.”

Early next year, the HOS said it will publish a spotlight report on disrepair ahead of the new Decent Homes Standard being introduced. 

In closing, Blakeway said: “The incoming Decent Homes Standard will 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.”