More than £133,000 in compensation was paid to tenants across a period of six months after Lambeth Council failed to fix urgent repairs in their homes.
Lambeth Council had to pay out £133,339 in Housing Ombudsman compensation from October 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
During this time, the council received 108 cases, compared to 98 in the first six months of the financial year.
Of these, at least 19 had severe maladministration findings, which are the most serious determinations made by the Housing Ombudsman.
These included outstanding repairs, and complaints about damp and mould alongside blocked toilet repairs and pest infestations.
The Housing Ombudsman is an independent, impartial and free service for social housing residents, and is sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
A council report noted that the high levels of compensation has reduced the council’s ability to invest in maintaining its housing stock as there are less resources available.
The same report also found that in 2024/25, Lambeth had the highest number of Housing Ombudsman determinations (121) and maladministration rates (92 per cent) out of 11 London boroughs.
During a General Purposes Committee meeting last Thursday (July 23), Janet Sharpe, director of housing operations, outlined a number of improvements the council is making to address the high volume of complaints and maladministration findings.
Ms Sharpe said: “We are doing a significant amount of reaching out to customers and engagement to hear their concerns around the service and also to provide regular information, including pulse surveys on repairs so we can see that we are moving in the right direction.
“We are also doing a significant amount of training and working with teams so that we try and reduce the amount of stage one complaints escalating to stage two and then escalating into the Housing Ombudsman.
“So hopefully we can try and see how we can bring down the number of cases that are ending up being Housing Ombudsman investigations.”
Other improvements include an SMS service for residents who have requested repairs. Tenants will receive a message to confirm if contractors attended, if the work has been completed and if they are satisfied.
The council is also carrying out multiple visits to homes for the same repair, and has a process in place with contractors in terms of how to resolve these cases and issues.
Ms Sharpe added: “There is a lot of work to do and there are more improvements to make, but I would hope that by the time we come back to the committee we will be able to demonstrate and see that we are moving in the right direction.
“And above all, our tenants and residents feel that we are open to challenge and we’re open to introducing measures that will improve how we can engage with our tenants and residents. We are here to listen.”
Later on in the meeting, Cllr Sacha Takyi-Berko asked a question about the compensation the council has recently paid out to tenants.
Cllr Takyi-Berko, Chair of the Committee, said: “It is a lot. Just giving me an estimate, what could we have done with that money? Is it possible to know how much the repairs cost?”
In response, Ms Sharpe said the council can provide “clear information” on the actual physical cost of those repairs, and set out what the sum of money would have funded.
These details are expected to be on the agenda for the next General Purposes Committee meeting.
