Tenants encouraged to ramp up housing complaints under new government campaign

Launched today, the government have announced a new campaign urging social housing tenants to make complaints to their landlord rather than suffer with poor housing conditions.

Spearheading the launch of the government’s ‘Make Things Right’ campaign, which is set to run across England from today until the end of April, Housing Secretary Michael Gove, is urging social housing tenants to complain about substandard housing.

Residents are being encouraged to make their voices heard by making a complaint to their landlord in the first instance and then escalating to the Housing Ombudsman, a leading UK organisation that deals with housing complaints, if they are unhappy with their response.

The new measures have been brought in after a family in Bradford made continuous complaints about an excessive damp and mould problem in their flat, but the landlord failed to do anything about it, resulting in the death of their two-year-old son.

Images of black mould and leaking ceilings will flood across social media platforms such as Spotify as part of advertising the new project.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove said: ‘Too many social housing tenants are being let down and ignored. This government is determined to stand up for them and give them a proper voice. They deserve a decent, safe and secure home, just like everybody else.’

Findings from the government’s social housing resident panel – bringing together over 200 residents across the country – found 65% of members said their experiences of raising complaints with their landlord had been unsatisfactory.

Some of the most major issues residents have flagged regarding submitting a complaint to their landlord are, the time taken for complaints to be addressed, disrespectful conduct, lack of communication or inaccuracy of information experienced during previous complaints process, and a lack of repercussions for landlords if residents are not taken seriously or complaints are not resolved efficiently.

Almost a third of all social renters considered making a complaint in 2020-21, but 27% decided against it because they thought nothing would be done in response, according to figures from the English Housing Survey.

Since October, it has been quicker for residents to take complaints directly to the Housing Ombudsman, after the requirement for people to go to their MP or local councillor first and wait eight weeks after completing the landlord’s process was removed.

However, Richard Blakeway from the Housing Ombudsman, said: ‘Effective complaint handling starts with landlords getting things right first time.

‘If and when things do go wrong, landlords must fix the issue, apologise, offer appropriate compensation, and show they have learnt from those errors.

‘If that doesn’t happen then residents can take their complaint to us at the Housing Ombudsman. We’re free, independent and impartial in order to help residents and landlords find a resolution to their complaint.’

The previous government social housing campaign, which ran from February to March 2022, saw enquiries to the Housing Ombudsman increase by 25% compared to the previous two months.

Photo by Sunrise