20th
Dec 2023
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove has written to 10 social housing associations and councils slating them for findings of their poor maladministration culture.
The findings were uncovered by the Housing Ombudsman (currently the redress service for social housing) which will probably be introduced across the private rented sector once the Renters Reform Bill finds ‘the ‘light of day’.
Newham council in London is one of the ‘Dirty Ten’.
This council perpetually boasts about its enforcement actions against PRS landlords and is highly critical of them in its stream of statements.
One such example is when the council earlier in the year released a statement claiming it had during the five years – 2018 to 2023 – had investigated over 2,620 breaches of landlord licences resulting in 387 penalty fines of £5,000 to £30,000, as well as issuing 6,447 enforcement letters.
But Michael Gove is now turning the screw on Newham telling the council is guilty of serious mismanagement of its social housing responsibilities.
The Housing Secretary’s letter says:
I write following a finding of severe maladministration by the Housing Ombudsman for your failure to respond adequately to your resident’s damp and mould issue for over three years. In this case, the resident had no communication from you when they first complained about the damp and mould.
You did not update him on how you were going to resolve this issue or inform him of next steps.
When you did eventually respond and visited his property to fix an ongoing leak, you failed to resolve the damp and mould itself.
Your resident had to ask you multiple times for updates, and he was forced to move into temporary accommodation two years later due to the strong smell of damp throughout his home.
This is unacceptable.
The tragic death of Awaab Ishak has shown that we must not be complacent about issues that have the potential to damage residents’ health.
You failed to provide the level of service your residents should expect to receive. When your residents report an issue, it should be acted upon swiftly and effectively. Social housing residents must be able to put their trust in their landlords to provide a decent home and deal with complaints swiftly and effectively.
The Social Housing Regulation Act is bringing in a tough new regulatory regime to support this Government’s commitment to driving up standards and holding landlords accountable for providing social housing residents with decent homes.
I expect the actions you are taking to improve the service you deliver to your residents.
I will be taking a personal interest in how your organisation delivers its responsibilities. My officials will be in touch to arrange for you to meet with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Housing to discuss your failings.
I am copying this letter to Stephen Timms MP, Lyn Carol Brown MP, Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, Councillor Danny Keeling, the Select Committee for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the Housing Ombudsman.
Yours, RT HON MICHAEL GOVE
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