We have published our Annual Complaints Review 2024-25. This found complaints still rising, but some encouraging signs that landlord handling is improving.
There was a 2-percentage point fall in our overall maladministration rate, a 7% drop for complaint handling and a 9% decrease in fault handling anti-social behaviour.
There was also over 800 more findings made where the landlord took reasonable steps to put things right itself, rather than being ordered by us.
Complaints performance remains mixed across social landlords. There were 120 landlords where 75% or more complaints were upheld. There were also 131 landlords who received at least one finding of severe maladministration, some several times.
But we have seen 16 landlords significantly improve their performance this year and 2 landlords – North Devon Homes and Pickering and Feren Homes – where we investigated several complaints without finding any failings.
Despite this encouraging direction of travel, the overall maladministration rate still sits too high at 71%. Poor property condition continues to dominate our casework with a 43% increase in findings – far above the overall rise in investigations – with no improvement in the maladministration rate. Our findings show local authority landlords facing acute pressures handling housing complaints, alongside medium-sized housing associations.
The impact on residents’ lives and welfare of poor services and conditions is apparent in our investigations.
This includes a household living for 2 years with bin bags covering a hole in their living room ceiling with the risk of asbestos.
Another resident lived for 3 years without functioning heating and hot water.
And a child had their bedroom window boarded up for 4 years, with the family worried about excess cold.
Overall, we made 26,901 interventions to put things right, with 40% of compensation related to leaks, damp, and mould.
We encourage landlords to learn from this review. Our Centre for Learning has eLearning modules and workshops to give housing professionals free-to-access materials to improve services. The Centre for Learning also contains case studies, reports, podcasts and more on key topics the sector is facing.