8 hours Ago
A council has had to pay out thousands of pounds in compensation after complaints about how it dealt with housing issues were upheld. The Housing Ombudsman handed down five new findings against Arun District Council between October and December last year, a council complaints report shows. This follows Arun’s first ever finding of severe maladministration within its housing service, determined by the housing ombudsman in July last year.
The report, shown to the council’s housing and wellbeing committee, showed the council paid out £3,460.73 in compensation across the five cases. More than half of the compensation was paid out to one case filed in February 2024, with the council required to pay £1,810.
73 for a finding of maladministration in handling of damp and mould. In total around seven service failures and three maladministration findings were found against the council by the ombudsman during the end of year quarter, with four cases relating to the repairs department and one with the neighbourhoods team. The committee report showed that roughly 80 per cent of the 147 stage one and two complaints received by the council during that quarter were with housing, with roughly 50 per cent of complaints specifically with housing repairs.
It also said as of January 15 this year, the council has 18 open cases with the Housing Ombudsman and four cases with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). Three of the cases were filed in 2022 and one in 2023, with a council spokesman previously stating the ombudsman was working through a complaints backlog from 2020 onwards, saying the council had made "significant improvements" to complaints handling..
