Yet another social housing landlord is under the spotlight following failings identified by the Housing Ombudsman.

A special investigation has been launched into Wandle Housing Association, following its maladministration rate being at 89% according to a formula from the Ombudsman. 

The investigation will seek to improve policies and processes that enable landlord staff to deliver better services for residents

Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, says: “We are seeing a high maladministration rate with this landlord, which is of cause for concern.

“Following the investigation we will engage with the landlord and discuss our learning recommendations, and publish these in a report highlighting any issues we have identified in the cases investigated.

“Developing this report in a collaborative way with the landlord ensures the recommendations we make can be taken forwards positively, and we will continue to work with the landlord after the publication of the report to help ensure these are implemented and drive actions.”

Anne Waterhouse, the chief executive at Wandle, admits: “We recognise that our complaint handling hasn’t been what our residents deserve and are committed to putting this right – as we’ve demonstrated in our recent complaint handling report, and residents annual report.

“We already have a project group established to look at some of the causes of our poor performance in complaint handling. We want to learn and improve from complaints, and look forward to working with our customers and the Ombudsman to show them what we’ve started to put in place, recent changes and improvements, and listen to their ideas about where we can do more to deliver consistently good outcomes for our customers.”