Last Autumn, an ITV documentary shone the spotlight on the shocking conditions endured by some people and families living in social housing.
Residents, who have had to endure leaks, mould, damp, overcrowding, collapsed ceilings and rodent problems, spoke out movingly about being forced to live in unsafe and unfit properties.
It has led to some difficult questions for housing providers.
Chief executive of the Association of Retained Council Housing, John Bibby, told The MJ he had been ‘shocked’ watching the coverage and it had been a ‘wake-up call’ for the sector.
‘Clearly, you can’t defend the indefensible,’ he said.
‘Occasionally things go wrong.
'Most of our members are looking at the ways they monitor complaints.
'We’re always going to have problems – the key is how the landlord responds to them.’
In many cases, that response has not been good enough.
The National Federation of Arm’s Length Management Organisations (NFALMO), whose members manage 326,000 council homes across England, has acknowledged the ‘appalling conditions’ exposed.
It said: ‘We do not believe that this is representative of the social housing sector as a whole but it does show the need for improved regulation in our sector and, for some types of homes, increased investment.
‘Although there have been some serious concerns raised by the media recently, which we agree need addressing, we do not believe the evidence points to this being a widespread issue across social housing.
‘The current regime puts far too much faith in organisations doing the right thing.
'While many social housing providers are well managed and deliver high quality services this is clearly not true for all.’
Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway, whose remit has expanded since the Grenfell Tower fire, said there had been a ‘significant increase’ in the volume of complaints – 140% up this financial year – since a brief drop at the start of the first coronavirus lockdown.
The number of complaints upheld also nearly doubled to 49% last year, indicating that this is not just a matter of residents becoming more aware of their rights.
Mr Blakeway continued: ‘It is clear that people felt going to the media was their best option – that shouldn’t be the position people end up in.
‘The media coverage has brought focus and promoted a debate.
'Landlords have really reflected on their approach and produced action plans though different landlords will be at different stages in their learning journey.’
Last year a Housing Ombudsman report on damp and mould found there were 10.8 cases of maladministration per 10,000 homes between April 2019 and March 2021.
Mr Blakeway added: ‘I think there were lessons across the sector.
'There’s lessons for everyone.
‘No landlord should think this is not something that we are experiencing.
'Anything else is complacency. Landlords shouldn’t be defensive about complaints.’
The most recent English housing survey found there were a lower proportion of non-decent homes in the social sector (13%) than the private-rented (21%) and owner-occupied sectors (16%).
Local authorities nevertheless featured strongly in the ombudsman’s damp and mould report.
Hammersmith & Fulham LBC vowed to improve its performance after the report placed it at the top of the ombudsman’s league table for maladministration in the report.
The council, which has ‘apologised unreservedly,’ said ‘years of austerity’ had prevented it from upgrading its ‘ageing housing stock’.
Ageing stock is a wider problem – with some properties now 100 years old and just 11% of local authority stock built after 1980.
The financial pressures caused by the building safety issues that have emerged since the tragic Grenfell fire have also curtailed proposed capital programmes and delayed plans to build new council homes.
NFALMO continued: ‘The combination of severe funding cuts to local authorities, increasing demand for services and the lack of proactive regulation over the last ten years seems to have led to some local authorities taking their eye off the ball or using limited resources to prioritise more heavily-regulated services.’
In 2020, the Government’s social housing White Paper concluded that the current regime for regulating the sector was not fit-for-purpose.
That is probably another reason why there has been an upswing in tenants going to the media as a way to get their issues heard.
The Government has now pledged to give the regulator stronger powers to take action when things go wrong and has been reviewing the minimum decent homes standard, which is now 20 years old.
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: ‘The Government is bringing forward wide-ranging reforms to the sector, including making sure complaints are dealt with fairly and promptly, and giving the regulator greater powers to take action, such as through regular inspections of the largest landlords.’
However, reforms will only have a limited impact unless the culture also changes.
Mr Blakeway said: ‘Culture comes up a lot in the work that we do.
'We were really concerned about some authorities’ language that appeared to apportion blame and suggested residents’ lifestyle was the cause, which can be profoundly offensive.’
He called for landlords to be proactive instead of just relying on residents’ complaints and for them to adopt a ‘zero-tolerance approach’.
When those complaints do come in, at the very least, it is vital they are dealt with sympathetically, professionally and swiftly.