Ombudsman calls for national tenant body after surge in repairs complaints

The Housing Ombudsman has urged the government to establish a national tenant body and a funding review, saying there has been a surge in repair complaints in the past five years.

In its latest report, the watchdog said there had been a 474% increase in its investigations between 2019/20 and 2024/25.

The ombudsman said a national tenant body “would ensure residents have a powerful voice in the decision-making processes that affect their homes and lives, enhancing accountability”.

The report said a review of the national funding settlement for social landlords would evaluate if it can sufficiently meet the needs of both new and existing homes.

Entitled “Repairing Trust”, the report revealed that poor practice was found in 72% of complaint cases, with £3.4m compensation paid to tenants for poor living conditions in 2024-25.

This is despite social landlords spending a record £9bn on repairs and maintenance in 2023-24.

Richard Blakeway, housing ombudsman warned that the “current unsustainable model for maintaining existing social homes” represents a “significant risk” to the government’s housebuilding goals.

He pointed out that while it takes two years to build a home, this creates a 60-year maintenance need.

The report said ”The vital housebuilding goals proposed by government underscore the urgency to modernise maintenance. The longterm sustainability of social housing involves both increasing the number of social homes together with improving existing ones. This balance between new and old has sometimes proven challenging for some social landlords.

”Overcoming this requires a better strategic operating environment.” 

The report included examples of good practice alongside instances of poor handling, such as a resident’s personal belongings being destroyed during works and operatives arriving in the middle of the night without notice.

It also acknowledged the increasing number of reports of unreasonable resident behaviour made by landlords.

Blakeway said: “Repairs are the single biggest driver of complaints and determining factor of resident trust. This reflects how home is an emotional place, and a repair is more than a job.

“For the millions of repairs done successfully each year, clear and consistent failings are apparent in our casework as maintenance becomes more complex and costly.

“Without change we effectively risk the managed decline of one of the largest provisions of social housing in Europe, especially in areas of lowest affordability. It also risks the simmering anger at poor housing conditions becoming social disquiet.”

He recommended modernising maintenance procedures, including transitioning from reactive to predictive models so landlords can anticipate issues before they escalate and provide more timely repairs.

He also called for the creation of a code of conduct for all staff entering residents’ homes to “set clear expectations for behaviour and communication, further building trust and accountability”.

>>See also: Poor communications from housing associations ‘compounding’ maintenance failures, says Ombudsman

Commenting on the report, Gavin Smart, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) said: “The Housing Ombudsman’s Spotlight report, ‘Repairing Trust’ reinforces what we know from our work on the Better Social Housing Review – that poor repairs, communication, and underinvestment can undermine trust between landlords and residents.

”But the report also highlights positive examples where things are working well, showing what’s possible when services are resident-focused and culture is open and responsive. Trust can be rebuilt through culture change, by centring resident voice, tackling stigma, and investing in quality homes. That’s why we’re supporting the sector through our good practice work and calling on government to provide the long-term investment and underpinning strategy needed.”

The data reported by the ombudsman is based on a review of hundreds of cases and over 3,000 responses to a call for evidence, including from MPs and councillors.

It estimated that 1.5 million children in England lived in a non-decent home in 2023, with 19% of those live in social housing.