Southern’s ‘lack of ownership’ on complaints shows risk around mergers, ombudsman says

The ombudsman said that Southern Housing “failed to take responsibility for complaints, delayed in responding, and lacked empathy for the time, trouble and distress caused to residents”.

“[Southern Housing] also failed to proactively take effective ownership of [anti-social behaviour] cases, repairs and its contractors,” the ombudsman said in the report.

“We also found that residents continued to face barriers to making complaints several months after the merger.”

This included a case with “such lengthy delays” in dealing with a leaking waste pipe that Environmental Health issued an improvement notice.

It also consisted of a case in which there was “a lack of appropriate action” following a risk assessment that was made after a resident was wielding a machete and threatening to set fire to the building.

The report identified seven key themes and made recommendations to improve in those areas.

These include complaint-handling, its repairs service, managing agents and third parties, making reasonable adjustments for residents and how the landlord handles unreasonable behaviour from residents.

It also consists of knowledge and information management of repairs and complaints as well as its management processes across the frontline services where it investigated complaints.

As part of its complaint-handling recommendations, the ombudsman said that Southern Housing should implement a clearer, ‘one front door’ approach to receiving complaints, regardless of which ‘legacy’ organisation the home belonged to.

It also said the landlord should ensure that it has one system in which landlord staff can record complaints, escalation requests and responses.

On repairs, the ombudsman recommended that the housing association revises its policy to include timescales for non-emergency repairs and review its record-keeping practices and those of its contractors.

The ombudsman said it will work with Southern Housing until it has assurances that it has complied with the recommendations, and it is embedding these changes into practice.

Mr Blakeway said: “The leadership of the landlord has been open and reflective during our investigation, and the proactive steps it is taking should make a difference for residents in what is a challenging operating environment.”

Southern Housing’s response

In its learning statement, Southern Housing said it is “truly sorry to all residents who’ve experienced service failures”, including the 67 residents that this report shows the landlord let down.

“Throughout this investigation process, we’ve worked proactively and collaboratively with the ombudsman and his team, and we welcome the learning from this report,” the housing association said.

It added: “The important thing is that we acknowledge failures promptly, apologise, put things right, and learn lessons.”

Southern Housing said that since its merger it has introduced “a number of changes”, including a customer service training programme for all colleagues, and is implementing improvements in repairs and maintenance.

The landlord said it will complete the integration of its systems by April 2025, enabling it “to realise further merger benefits and deliver services to a consistently higher standard”.

“We’ll use the report together with our long-standing commitment to resident governance to drive further improvements,” Southern Housing said.

It added: “We’re confident that our commitment to listening to residents and co-creating service improvements will enable us to achieve the standard of services residents tell us they want.”