Housing Ombudsman Finds More Maladministration in Southwark Council
The Southwark Liberal Democrats have uncovered more findings of maladministration handled by the Housing Ombudsman, ahead of crunch confidence vote over housing, taking place the 26th February.
Southwark Council has previously topped tables on housing issues – according to the Local Government Ombudsman they received the 3rd highest number of complaints in the country, and was forced by the Housing Ombudsman to pay out the 5th most compensation in London, which had almost quadrupled in a year to £89,000.
Two of the findings relate to leaks causing significant and severe damage and distress – and in both instances the Ombudsman confirmed that the council failed to respond to complaints properly, with one of them seeing delays of around a year. The Ombudsman ordered £1215 and £440 in compensation due to these failings. In one of the cases, the council was found to have been “unempathetic”.
A separate, more troubling case involves “severe maladministration” in handling the move of a resident experiencing domestic abuse. After the resident moved out, the council failed to close her account, resulting in £5000 of arrears building up. The Ombudsman further found the eventual complaints were delayed, and ordered the arrears to be cleared and for £1400 in compensation to be awarded, due to the “distress” the experience had caused.
This comes the day before the Liberal Democrats are due to move a motion of no confidence in Southwark’s Labour leadership following the Regulator of Social Housing’s recent findings of “serious failings”.
Commenting, Southwark Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson Cllr Emily Tester said:
“These cases are far from rare, and exactly the sort of thing we’re seeing in our inboxes every single day. Repairs that are delayed, repeat visits with no resolution, and a lack of empathy from a faceless bureaucracy. It’s cases like these that underline how grave the situation is, and why findings of serious failings mean that those at the very top must take responsibility. No more apologies, it’s time for them to go.