The government says it’s going to name and shame what it considers to be bad social landlords, using social media to identify them.

The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says this new initiative will include publishing findings by the new Housing Ombudsman in cases of “severe maladministration” and judgements of the Regulator of Social Housing that consumer standards have been breached.

The Housing Ombudsman is independent of government and impartially resolves disputes between tenants, leaseholders and their social landlords. 

The Ombudsman has 2,316 member landlords representing 4.7m households and in its most recent year – 2020/21 – the Ombudsman issued 3,455 orders and recommendations following investigations and made awards of compensation totalling £450,000.

In the most serious cases, the Ombudsman can make a finding of severe maladministration, such cases are published on the Ombudsman’s website and shared with the Regulator of Social Housing. 

In these most serious cases residents have often experienced problems over an extended period and there have been missed opportunities by the landlord to resolve them. In recent times this has often included repairs, leaks, damp and mould.

The department has named nine social landlords who have had a severe maladministration finding from the Housing Ombudsman in the past eight months. 

These are:

– London Borough of Lambeth, published 1 March 2022;

– Homes for Haringey, published 15 February 2022;

– Metropolitan Thames Valley, published 25 January 2022;

– Great Yarmouth Borough Council, published 18 January 2022;

– London Borough of Ealing, published 11 January 2022;

– Anchor Hanover, published 30 November 2021;

– Abri, published 18 November 2021;

– Inquilab Housing Association, published 7 October 2021; and

– Golding Homes, published 29 September 2021.

Minister for Social Housing Eddie Hughes says. “Everyone in this country deserves to live in a safe and decent home. It is unacceptable that anyone should have mould covering their walls, risk slipping on a wet floor or have water dripping from the ceiling.”

“We have published draft legislation today to toughen up regulation of social housing landlords. This includes naming and shaming those landlords who fail to meet acceptable living standards and giving tenants a direct channel to raise their concerns with government.”

“This package will help to deliver on our commitment in the Levelling Up White Paper to halve the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030.”