The Housing Ombudsman, who regulates social landlords such as councils and housing associations, made 21,740 interventions to “put things right for residents” in the past year.

Interventions ranged from doing repairs to paying compensation and improving practices – a 329% increase in the previous 12 months.

It has also published 271 landlord performance reports and written to 126 landlords where failings were found in 75% or more of its decisions – compared to just 25 landlords last year. 

Other key figures include:

• 73% of decisions resulted in maladministrationbecause the landlord did not follow its legal requirements, policy or process;

• 73% of property condition findings upheld, 84% for the handling of the complaint, 68% for anti-social behaviour and 62% for health and safety, including building safety – every complaint category has seen an increase;

• the area with the highest proportion of findings upheld was London at 77% compared to the lowest of 62% in the North East and Yorkshire, with every region witnessing an increase;

• nine landlords received more than 5 failure orders for non-compliance with the Complaint Handling Code or cooperating with investigations.

The Ombudsman’s annual review says: “The impact on residents’ lives and welfare of poor services and conditions is apparent in the complaints investigated throughout the year.

“This includes declining school attendance amongst children living with untreated damp and mould, repair delays forcing a father to carry his severely disabled daughter up and down the stairs every day, and a doctor advising that housing conditions could have led to a resident’s lung infection. 

“In several cases of disrepair residents have referred to visiting hospital while waiting for works.”

Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, says: “These figures are another stark reminder of the scale of the housing emergency and the urgent need for landlords to improve essential services and some living conditions.

“Both our complaint review and satisfaction surveys show that social housing residents deserve better.

“… Behind every statistic is a resident’s life that has been disrupted by landlord inaction or ineffectiveness. Our cases show this leads to children missing school, reports of declining health or people forced to sleep on sofas or floors.

“This could be avoided with more investment into existing homes, improved systems and technology and stronger service management. Without tackling the root causes of complaints, trust in landlords will be eroded, with communities and the economy adversely impacted.

“Resolving some of these fundamentals can be the catalyst for a better future where landlords prevent complaints coming to us and deliver better outcomes for residents.

“…The incoming Decent Homes Standard will set minimum conditions of social homes for the next generation. This important and vital programme risks being an unfulfilled promise if landlords do not grip the issues exposed by this review. Social landlords also need to ensure they can focus on improving and investing in existing homes when wanting to help build the thousands of more homes needed.”