Some of England’s biggest social housing landlords are ignoring official warnings to handle tenants’ complaints better and the problem is getting worse, the ombudsman for the sector has said.
Landlords including L&Q, Southwark Council and A2Dominion Group – which together let out 142,000 low-cost homes – failed to act despite being told to tackle complaints response delays and provide information to the watchdog.
Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said in just three months the watchdog issued landlords with 43 “complaints handling failure orders” and 18 were not complied with, the most yet.
“It is exceptional for us to issue a failure order,” he said. “For a landlord to receive several and not comply indicates its complaints procedure is not working as it should.”
