Michael Gove has told Britain’s second biggest social housing landlord: “You have failed your residents.”
The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities has called the chief executive of L&Q to a meeting after the housing ombudsman ordered the landlord to pay tenants more than £140,000 in compensation.
A special investigation revealed it was “dismissive” of tenants and found “severe maladministration”, including in tackling disrepair and antisocial behaviour. Some of L&Q’s 250,000 residents have complained of living with mould, leaks and cockroaches.
In a letter to Fiona Fletcher-Smith, the chief executive of the association, which operates more than 107,000 homes in England, Gove said he was “deeply shocked and disappointed” to discover the landlord’s failings had caused residents “unacceptable” and “prolonged periods of distress”.
“This is unacceptable,” he said. “You have stopped listening to your residents’ voices, and failed to deliver the service that they should expect… in some cases you were described as having been ‘heavy handed’, ‘dismissive’ and even ‘callous’ and ‘confrontational’… You must take immediate action to remedy these severe failings.”
