News

The Housing Ombudsman has just published our independent review of our response to leaks, damp and mould following findings from three severe maladministration cases dating back to 2017. You can read the full report here.

Key findings

Defects
One of the main areas for improvement involved latent defects, with the report stating we needed better control of the progression of cases and communication between residents, developers, and third parties.

Following this review, we’ve made sweeping changes to the way we manage third party contractors, adding new monitoring processes to keep check on their performance for customers.

Repairs
We are implementing an improvement plan, as well as introducing practical measures, such as SMS confirmation and reminders for appointments, live-tracking of operatives, and two-way messaging to allow for greater communication.

We had limitations with our old repairs system which cause issues with non-urgent work prioritisation. There were also inconsistencies with our record keeping, which is a key area we are looking to improve.

Leasehold Management
The report also highlighted issues with leaseholder management, and so we have reduced manager caseloads. This change, as well as many others in their wider housing management transition, has seen a reduction in dissatisfaction, the number of stage 1 complaints being received and improved compliance with complaint response times at both stage 1 and 2.

Vulnerabilities
A new system is being introduced to provide a more accessible way to record information, which will also include steps to improve resident data overall.

Complaints
Since the beginning of the year, we have transformed our complaints handling process as we were aware that our processes were often the reason why complaints were escalated for Stage 1 to Stage 2.

The report outlined a lack of broad understanding of system capabilities and limitations, as well as a need for greater buy-in from managers and senior managers about policy requirements. We have just finished updating our compensation and complaints policies as a result of previous recommendations.

Further recommendations

We have identified three other areas that we are improving as quickly as we can:

• Effective use of the repairs system
• Case management of planned and packaged works
• Contractor management.

Recommendations from the report include:

• Conducting a root and branch review of latent defect management to include colleagues from every team
• Setting standards for all repairs staff on resident communication
• Setting expectations across the organisation on record keeping
• Reporting measures to highlight cases raised against a household with an identified vulnerability or support need to allow for quality checking of cases
• Updating letter templates to encourage more empathetic language and a more compassionate approach to responses
• Establishing ownership of both Spotlight report self-assessments and accountability for the implementation of the findings, to ensure they are embedded within existing or planned programmes of work.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “This is a frank, forensic and far-reaching assessment by the landlord to identify the root causes for repeated service failings. It is a powerful report which should be read by other landlords of all sizes who may be facing similar challenges handling repairs and complaints.

“That its review was conducted by its own staff but independent of the services involved both demonstrates the strong ownership the landlord is taking to deliver service improvement but also increases the prospect that changes will improve the experience for residents.

“In particular the report focuses on some key areas where even modest changes can effect positive change. I strongly welcome the landlord’s has identified focus on culture and behaviours well as well as process and systems. This can be the missing piece of the jigsaw when learning from complaints and turn a new policy into effective practice.”

Ian Wardle, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies to the customers who were impacted in 2017 by the issues outlined in this report, and to offer reassurance that our number one priority is to vastly improve our services for them. 

“In this instance there were significant delays in our response in terms of repairs carried out, communications with our customers and in the way we escalated issues.  We have since complied with all the orders in this case. Full repair work has since been completed at this development and further investigation will take place to ensure that other customers have not been negatively impacted by the issues raised in this review. 

“We know that some of our services have not met the standards that we or our customers expect. Many improvements are already underway as a result of our new strategy, as we continue to work closely with the Housing Ombudsman. 

“Building on our existing improvement programs within repairs and complaints handling, we continue to invest in our structure, and promoting positive outcomes for customers.  This includes a new approach to housing management, targeted at transforming customer experience in our tallest and most complex buildings. We know there are still issues we are working to address to improve our services for customers, and that’s why we are moving quickly to make wide-scale improvements.”

Read the report in full here