Ombudsman launches special investigation into Lewisham Council

Lewisham Council welcomes this investigation as we continue to work to improve our services for residents. Our Housing Service has been going through big changes and we know it is in need of improvement. We referred ourselves to the Regulator of Social Housing for a potential breach of its consumer standards in December 2023, and we intend to be open and transparent with both Regulator and Ombudsman until we satisfy their requirements.

We have already made progress in some areas, though we still have a long way to go. Our improvement plans to tackle the issues raised in this investigation include these key focuses:

• Repairs: In recent months we have reduced the backlog of repairs from more than 18,000 to fewer than 9,000. In the same period, we have improved how many routine and emergency repairs we are completing on time, from 57% and 33% in April to 67% and 58% in June. We will continue reducing the backlog to put us in a better position to plan ahead and know what resources we need, so we can further improve our turn-around times.
• Damp and mould: We are carrying out a condition survey of all of our homes. We have so far surveyed 7,500 properties, over 50% of the total. This is already enabling us to identify buildings prone to damp and mould, even where it hasn’t been reported, and plan refurbishment. We have recruited additional specialist damp and mould surveyors to work towards a target of performing a mould wash within 24 hours of it being reported by a resident.
• Customer service: We have reduced the call waiting time at our repairs booking contact centre from 27 minutes in April to 6 minutes in June. We have improved our response times for repairs complaints: For Stage 1 complaints we met the ten-day target for 83% of complaints in June, against 63% in April. For Stage 2 (20 days) we improved to 72% from 45% in the same period. We have begun a comprehensive training programme for staff who respond to complaints to make sure our residents always get fair, clear and polite responses.
• Upgrading our systems: We are upgrading the central computer program and database our staff use to manage the Housing Service. This will help us to make sure we don’t lose track of our resident’s requests and we get ahead of problems before they cause an inconvenience, and giving our residents easier online access to our services.

Councillor Will Cooper, Lewisham Council cabinet member for Better Homes, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness, said:

“It is a crucial time for housing across London, and I want to make sure that everyone in our borough has a safe and decent home. We have major investment programmes in place to improve the housing we manage, and the Housing Service is focused on identifying and fixing the causes behind the failures highlighted in this report. We do not lose sight of the fact that these technical failures represent real stress and frustration for residents requesting basic services."