Southwark ordered to pay £10,000 to two residents for ‘inexcusable’ failings by Housing Ombudsman

In one of the cases a young family was left without heating for 6 months during the coldest period of the year. The council has been ordered to pay £2,000 compensation.

In the other case, Southwark has been ordered to pay over £7,000 compensation after another family with young children was left with worsening damp and mould issues for 17 months.

In a statement, the Housing Ombudsman described Southwark’s inaction in both cases as “inexcusable” and said the council “fell well short of how it should have responded”.

In October 2021, a Housing Ombudsman report ranked Southwark as one of the worst landlords in England for dealing with damp and mould.

In November 2022, Liberal Democrat opposition councillors called on the leader of the council to apologise to residents for residents who had been affected by Southwark’s poor response to damp and mould issues. However, Cllr Kieron Williams refused to apologise.

Last year, Southwark was found to be the 8^th most complained about council in England following a review from the Local Government Ombudsman.

70% of the complaints received by Southwark Council during the time of the review were related to housing issues.

Commenting, Leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group Cllr Victor Chamberlain said:

“Southwark Labour has presided over a disgraceful collapse of the council’s repairs service. These failings are putting lives at risk and we should not have to rely on the Housing Ombudsman to step in, yet again, to put things right.

It is little wonder Southwark is the eighth most complained about council in the entire country, and less surprising still that the majority of these complaints are about housing. The repairs service needs a complete overhaul and new investment. Everyone in Southwark deserves safe, good quality housing but Labour is failing to provide it.”

NOTES

• Details of the cases can be found in the Housing Ombudsman statement.
   
• The findings from the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman 2021-22 Local Government Complaints Review can be found here.
   
• The October 2021 Housing Ombudsman report can be found here.