There is a ‘culture of apathy’ at the London Borough of Haringey that has led to a lack of ownership, accountability, and intrinsic motivation when handling complaints, according to the Housing Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman has published a special report into the London borough which is informed by 32 individual investigations and engagement with the landlord over the last six months.

There were 77 findings across the cases, 18 of which involved severe maladministration, mostly for major repairs, damp and mould and complaint handling. The overall uphold rate was 82%.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: ‘The findings in this report are stark, with failings across a range of areas which need prompt action.

‘The landlord recognises the current approach is not working for residents, services or its teams, and that the whole organisation needs to change its approach. There was frequently a loss of focus on achieving the right outcome for residents.

‘The senior leadership is to be commended for the focus it is bringing to improving housing management and starting to put in place the resources and structures to deliver change. We look forward to working with the landlord on these changes.’

Responding to the special report, the council said: ‘We recognise that residents in Haringey deserve the best possible housing services and that is why we brought the ALMO back in-house last summer, as it became clear that we were not managing or maintaining our homes as well as we should have been.

‘We take the Ombudsman report very seriously and we are determined to learn from the findings to improve the services we provide to the residents of Haringey.’

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