By Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman
Page 40 of the 2007 Cave Review into social housing regulation, commissioned by the last Labour government, contains a surprising nugget. It reported how the Housing Ombudsman had seen complaints about repairs slip to the second most likely reason for escalations to them. What a difference 18 years has made.
For several years property condition has dominated our casework, especially damp and mould, and our Annual Complaints Review for 2024-25 revealed a 43% increase in findings on disrepair. This is disproportionately high, even with the substantial rise in investigations being closed during that year. The maladministration rate has also remained stubbornly high in this space too.
That said, overall the annual review shows the landscape is less bleak. There are some indicators that complaint handling itself is turning a corner, with a 7% fall in related findings being upheld. There was a 60% increase in reasonable redress findings, that’s where something went wrong but a sensible solution was offered by the landlord itself. The volume of complaint handling failure orders was proportionately lower and severe maladministration for complaint handling itself infrequent. This is encouraging. It shows the effort and investment by landlords is paying off, and the Complaint Handling Code is embedding itself.
That’s not the end of the encouraging news. There were 16 landlords who we felt had demonstrated significant improvement compared to the previous financial year. This includes landlords who have been on our radar as being a concern previously. This sits alongside two landlords with no findings of maladministration despite a reasonable volume of investigations.
Of course, challenges remain. These improvements come from a poor base, with 71% of findings still being upheld by us; that’s way too high. There were also 120 landlords where three-quarters or more findings were upheld. This suggests particular challenges exist there – improvements made by those landlords may show up in future annual reviews, or more work is still to be done before it does. There were also some landlords where we awarded a high average of compensation, despite a fall overall. That indicates some things going very wrong and those landlords need to understand why, and whether it is isolated. That half of our compensation relates to leaks, damp and mould also shows how much of a challenge this issue remains for the sector as it prepares for Awaab’s Law.
Our findings show local authority landlords facing acute pressures in handling housing complaints, alongside medium-sized housing associations. It’s also interesting to look at our annual review alongside what we’re seeing in the initial regulatory judgements, where higher volumes of complaints don’t necessarily mean more problems, and a positive complaints culture shines through.
Which brings me to how landlords can engage with the annual review, and the future. Generally, it’s moved from defensive to curious. The individual landlord performance reports are an excellent way for the member responsible for complaints to structure a conversation about how things are going. It should feed into the learning reports and self-assessments on the Complaint Handling Code. It’s an opportunity to look afresh at how to improve practice, policy and performance.
For most landlords, complaints about property condition will be a key driver. Reflecting on our Spotlight report, Repairing Trust, and other insights remains vital as landlords seek to create human-centric, modern repairs and maintenance services. This involves better data and connecting the person living in the home to its condition, achieving brilliant basics (such as fewer missed appointments and a reasonable approach to gaining access) and moving towards a predictive rather than reactive repairs service.
Our proactive interventions with some landlords to promote learning from complaints will remain vital. And this review is also a way to think about preparedness for the future and resilience.
