Housing secretary writes to four London-based housing associations

Sovereign Network Group

Mr Gove said he was writing to SNG “again” following four findings of severe maladministration by the Housing Ombudsman.

These cases involved inaction and delays in responding to complaints.

“You have continued to fail your residents,” Mr Gove said in the letter.

He added: “The ombudsman found that you had either dismissed, delayed, or deflected your residents’ complaints. This is unacceptable. You should act swiftly and effectively to your residents’ complaints especially when the resident concerned is vulnerable.

“I understand that you have made some changes, including initiatives to prioritise complex repairs, considering vulnerable residents’ needs, and reviewing how you deal with pest infestations and complaints, to improve the quality of service you deliver. I continue to take a personal interest in how you will make the changes needed to give your residents confidence that you will act when they raise concerns with you.”

Nicole Sharp, chief customer officer at SNG, said: “We acknowledge that in these cases our standards were below our expectations, we have apologised to our customers involved and learnt from them.

“As the secretary of state recognises, we have changed our processes since these complaints were raised, and we are also investing significantly in giving our customers a great experience.”

Peabody

Mr Gove said that he was writing to Peabody again following three findings of severe maladministration by the Housing Ombudsman due to the provider’s “poor handling” of water leaks and supply of hot water.

He said in the letter: “Your inaction left your residents in terrible living conditions. This is unacceptable. You failed to provide the level of service your residents should expect to receive. When your residents report an issue, especially when vulnerable people are involved, it should be acted upon swiftly and effectively.

“The Social Housing Regulation Act is bringing in a tough new regulatory regime to support this government’s commitment to driving up standards and holding landlords accountable for providing social housing residents with decent homes.

“I expect the changes you have made, including creating a specialised complaints team and centralising your record keeping, to improve the quality of service you deliver. You must treat all residents with respect and dignity, and I will be taking a personal interest in the changes you make to do so.”

A spokesperson for Peabody said: “Our residents should expect to have issues dealt with quickly and efficiently, and we’re sorry that our services were not good enough in these cases.

“We have comprehensively overhauled our approach to complaints since these were raised back in May 2023. 

“We remain committed to continuous improvement and have asked for a meeting with Michael Gove to go through this in more detail.”

A2Dominion

In his letter to A2Dominion, Mr Gove said he was writing to the provider again following two findings of severe maladministration by the Housing Ombudsman due to the landlord’s poor handling of damp and mould.

He said in the letter: “Your inaction left your vulnerable residents in damp and mouldy conditions. This is unacceptable. You failed to provide the level of service your residents should expect to receive.

“When your residents report an issue, especially when vulnerable people are involved, it should be acted upon swiftly and effectively. The tragic death of Awaab Ishak has shown that we must not be complacent about issues that have the potential to damage residents’ health.”

Mr Gove added: “I expect the changes you have made, including the creation of a damp and mould team, to improve the quality of service you deliver. You must treat all residents with respect and dignity, and I will be taking a personal interest in the changes you make to do this.”

Ian Wardle, chief executive of A2Dominion, said: “Our customers’ health, well-being and homes are our priority, and we fully acknowledge that some of our services have fallen short of the standards we expect of ourselves.  There were delays in providing effective repairs in both cases, but we have taken action with wide-scale improvements across our organisation.

“The way we have managed issues in the past was not good enough, and since launching our new corporate strategy we’ve renewed our efforts to overhaul our processes and ways of working. Our re-commitment to focus on providing good-quality social housing now sits at the heart of everything we do.

“Last year we apologised to our customers and launched a major new project reopening over 5,000 historic cases of damp and mould to ensure that repairs and maintenance were carried out correctly. We will continue to review and improve the way we work as we go forward.”

Wandle Housing Association

Mr Gove has also written to Wandle again following two findings of severe maladministration by the Housing Ombudsman.

Both cases concerned the landlord’s failure to make the necessary repairs to homes, which left vulnerable residents living in poor conditions.

Mr Gove said the handling of the cases “fell well below the standard” residents should expect.

He said that complaints must be acted upon “swiftly and effectively”, especially when the residents concerned are vulnerable.

“I understand you have made some changes to your processes including completing the ombudsman’s damp and mould self-assessment and have improved your record-keeping practices, to improve the quality of service you deliver,” Mr Gove said in the letter.

“I will be taking a personal interest in the changes you make to improve the quality of service you deliver to your residents.”

A spokesperson from Wandle said: “We’re deeply sorry that our service to these residents didn’t meet the standard we strive to deliver. 

“When we received the determinations from the Housing Ombudsman in April and August 2023 respectively, we apologised unreservedly to both our residents in writing and in person, and reviewed policies and procedures to prevent something like this from happening again.”