R&M weaknesses exposed at major HAs

Two of the country’s biggest housing associations have been hit with critical reports of their repairs service to tenants, at a time when customer services are coming under greater public scrutiny.

Metropolitan Thames Valley which has 57,000 homes was criticised by the Housing Ombudsman in a rare ‘special report’ for failing to comply with an order after an investigation into a tenant’s complaint about repairs.

The ombudsman said it found “maladministration” at the association back in November 2017 in relation to maintenance at one housing block. At the time it ordered Metropolitan Thames Valley to provide more information to the tenant who had complained, pay compensation to them and carry out the maintenance by April last year. The HA carried out the first two orders, but failed to finish the works before the deadline.

The association said the delay was caused by “procurement and personnel difficulties”. It acknowledged that failing to comply with the order “had caused further distress and inconvenience to the complainant and to other residents in the block affected”. A spokesman said a review was being undertaken to learn from the outcomes of the case.

Painful lessons

L&Q with 95,000 homes admitted that its maintenance of Portway House in Southwark, south-east London fell below its normal standards as residents endured four years of “poor service and inadequate responses”. The new build scheme was handed over to L&Q in 2014 and residents were regularly reporting problems from the outset. A highly critical newspaper article appeared in The Observer in August 2018.

The HA then commissioned a report from consultants who found there were 412 defects on the 85-home development. The scheme housed a mix of private and social tenants, as well as shared owners. Faults included a leaking roof and issues with its heating, plumbing and sewage. Water ingress was known about prior to handover and the heating failed within four weeks of residents moving in to their new homes.

The consultants reported: “Our main conclusion is that despite evidence of serious and continuing problems at the scheme, residents suffered poor service and inadequate responses over a sustained period.” They also said the issues that arose at Portway House had the potential to be replicated at other new build schemes.

The association has taken the unusual step of publishing the consultants’ report along with its own action plan. Its chief executive David Montague, has said “I’m pulling no punches here, we got it wrong, we didn’t fix things when we should have, and as result we let down our residents. We’ve worked hard to put things right. And we’re determined to learn lessons, however painful that is.”

Despite residents regularly reporting problems and making use of the official complaints process, the association’s systems and processes failed them because no-one at L&Q took responsibility for resolving the problems and ensuring lessons were learned.

By Patrick Mooney, editor