Birmingham City Council has been ordered to overhaul its ‘fundamentally flawed’ complaints procedures by the housing ombudsman.
The watchdog used its powers to conduct a further investigation following a finding of maladministration in a case relating to housing repairs.
Examining complaints made to Birmingham City Council brought to the ombudsman from March to September 2022, it found maladministration in 24 out of 25 cases, including five findings of severe maladministration.
Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: ‘Our wider investigation reveals how the landlord’s current approach to handling complaints is fundamentally flawed.
‘At every point residents are met with increasing challenge to get the landlord to put things right while the lack of adequate policies, procedures and governance combined with limited learning from these issues means the landlord repeats the same mistakes.’
The ombudsman found improvements were necessary to the council’s record keeping, complaints handling, how it carries out repairs and compensation.
Mr Blakeway said: ‘The landlord has accepted our recommendations and taken steps to address the issues identified.
'How the landlord responds will demonstrate whether it is capable of fundamentally addressing these issues and embedding change across a large organisation.’
He added: ‘This landlord is not alone in facing these challenges and there are lessons for the wider sector from this report.
‘I continue to see cases that involve these fundamental issues, which cut across every aspect of a resident’s interaction with a landlord.’
The council said it had initiated a transformation programme and new housing strategy, in addition to allocating more resources to the service.
A spokesperson added: ‘We welcome the opportunity to work with the housing ombudsman during the implementation of their recommendations and we are fully committed to delivering service improvements for the benefit of all Birmingham City Council tenants.’
This article was originally published by The MJ (£).
