Issue - meetings

The Assistant Director of Environmental and Housing Property Services presented the Housing Ombudsman’s Findings Report in respect of case 202331009.  As with the previous item, Members were informed that this report related to a complaint that had been received from a local resident.

In the report, the Housing Ombudsman had highlighted two key areas in which maladministration by the Council had been identified in relation to this case:

·             Maladministration in the Council’s response to reports from the resident of damp and mould.

·             Maladministration in the Council’s complaint handling.

Officers were keen to learn lessons from this case and to ensure that action was taken to address the issues that had been identified by the Housing Ombudsman moving forward.

In considering the report, Members were asked to note that the Council had already agreed to introduce a specialist Damp and Mould team.  There had been successful recruitment to all of the posts in this team and new staff would commence employment with the authority over the coming weeks and months.

Consideration was given to performance data relating to damp and mould.  The performance data for the first quarter of 2025/26 indicated that there had been improvements compared to the previous quarter in 2024/25. 

Members discussed the report and in doing so acknowledged that there were serious issues that had been identified in the report which should not have occurred.  The report had been pre-scrutinised at the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 1^st September and there had been a very robust and challenging debate on the subject which had been very helpful.

The Committee welcomed the introduction of the Damp and Mould team and noted that new staff in this department would be commencing employment with the authority at a time when, following the end of summer, reports of damp and mould were likely to start to increase.  The introduction of this team was therefore considered to be timely and would hopefully help to ensure that reports of damp and mould were handled more appropriately in future.

The need for the Council to be open and transparent in admitting failings and focusing on learning lessons for the future was highlighted by Members.  It was noted that complaints needed to be taken seriously and the needs and experiences of residents was the Council’s priority moving forward.

RESOLVED that

1)          the findings, orders and recommendation from the Housing Ombudsman be noted; and

2)          compliance with those matters by the Council and the wider learning points be noted.