The Housing Ombudsman has launched a special investigation into Lewisham Council, which is guilty of “repeated failings”.
London’s calling: almost half of the complaints received by Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, are from the capital
The watchdog said it would carry out the probe into the south London council after issuing it with 16 “severe maladministration” findings in a year.
Lewisham follows Lambeth in attracting special treatment from the government watchdog, while Croydon was placed in the Ombudsman’s bad books as recently as January this year for four cases of “severe maladministration”.
There is another common denominator between Croydon and Lewisham’s housing.
Alison Butler, the former deputy leader of Croydon Council under Tony Newman, who championed Brick by Brick and presided over housing in this borough at the time of the Regina Road scandal, stood down as a councillor in May 2022, and then walked into a council job at Lewisham. In its housing department…
According to the Housing Ombudsman, almost half of all the complaints the office receives from across the country are from London boroughs. In 2023-2024, 47% of all complaints received by the Housing Ombudsman were from London postcodes. This is deemed to be “disproportionate”: Greater London has 1-in-6 of the nation’s homes.
This has prompted the Ombudsman to issue a table of complaint numbers by London borough. This includes figures from housing associations with homes within a local authority area.
The Ombudsman said that “in line with the acute housing crisis in the capital, most indicators reveal poorer outcomes in London for residents”. The Ombudsman’s “uphold rate” on complaints over the condition of properties, including repairs and health and safety, is the highest in the country in London.
League table: how the Ombudsman ranks London boroughs by complaint numbers. Croydon is 18th
“The housing crisis is intense in London, with under-resourcing and pressures that are outside the landlords’ control,” said Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman.
“However, there are still too many cases where residents have not been treated fairly, or basic obligations met.”
Lambeth, with 428 (and a maladminstration rate of 85.5%), tops the Ombudsman’s table with 428 findings in the borough for 2023-2024.
Southwark, with 320 (maladministration: 79.7%), is ranked fourth on Blakeway’s hit-list.
Croydon with 165 (maladministration rate of 77.6%) is ranked 18th of London’s 32 boroughs and the City. That’s fewer complaints than Bromley (166) and Wandsworth (181). Merton had 98 complaints, Bexley 71 and Sutton 64.
Lewisham is ranked seventh, on 236, with a maladministration rate of 85%, rising to 90% for leaks, damp and mould.
The housing watchdog said it would “progress” to a further investigation to establish if there was any “wider failure” at the local authority landlord.
Blakeway said: “For several months, we have been concerned at the repeated failings we have seen in the landlord’s complaints, particularly involving property conditions.
“We have given the landlord the opportunity to address some of these issues through our orders and will now progress to a further investigation. This will involve engaging with the landlord and its residents about some of the issues we have seen.
“Decent, safe and secure social housing has never been more important and the learning from this report will help the landlord to improve the experiences of residents.”
The watchdog will also share its findings with the Regulator of Social Housing, to which the council referred itself last year for a potential breach of consumer standards.
A spokesperson for Lewisham Council said: “We welcome this investigation as we continue to work to improve our services for residents.” They added that their housing department “is in need of improvement”.
“We intend to be open and transparent with both regulator and Ombudsman until we satisfy their requirements.”
Lewisham Council is reckoned to have had a backlog of 18,000 repairs cases – since reduced by half. On damp and mould, the council explained it was “carrying out a condition survey of all of our homes”. Around half of Lewisham’s 7,500 properties have been surveyed so far.
Read more: Croydon housing policy is reminiscent of Dickensian England
Read more: Croydon’s council close to the top of the table – for complaints
Read more: Ombudsman orders review of Croydon’s temporary housing
Read more: Brazen Butler at centre of new storm over Fairfield Halls fiasco
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
