Southwark Council ranked 3rd worst for housing complaints in the country
Southwark has been ranked 3rd on Housing in the country, beaten only by Birmingham and narrowly by Lambeth, the Local Government Ombudsman has revealed.
The LGSC Ombudsman, which oversees complaints for local authorities, has released its annual report, detailing the number of complaints it has had and how many it upheld. Southwark ranked 3rd in the country for housing, 15th for all complaints, and 5th in London for all complaints.
100% of complaints were upheld by the Ombudsman, compared to 77% last year, and 85% average for comparable councils.
Last year the Liberal Democrats revealed that the council had received over 4000 housing complaints internally in just one year, as major works scandals rumble on.
The ombudsman has previously fined the council 4 separate times for “severe maladministration”, paying a total of around £12,000 in compensation.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Victor Chamberlain said:
“Once again Southwark Labour tops the tables. It’s clear that not only are things not getting better, but they’re getting worse. Liberal Democrats have repeatedly put forward plans to improve the service residents get in housing and across the council, but Labour reject them every time. This Labour council is quickly running out of excuses for why it is failing on housing and across its services.”