Calls for the creation of a national tenant body as Repair Complaints Surge by 474%...

The Housing Ombudsman releases its latest Spotlight which sheds light on the national crisis in maintaining England’s social housing stock, as complaints against landlords surge.

28th July 2025

The Housing Ombudsman has blown the whistle on what it calls a national crisis in England’s social housing repairs, revealing a shocking 474% surge in complaints about poor living conditions over the past five years.

Teesside Landlord Thirteen has seen the numbers of complaints it receives increase sharply

In its newly published report, the Ombudsman warns that unless major reforms are made, the spiralling crisis could undermine the entire social housing system—and put the government’s housing targets at risk.

Its claimed that despite billions of pounds being spent on upgrading housing stock, many tenants are still stuck in cold, damp, unsafe homes, with repairs either botched, delayed, or simply ignored.

The Housing Ombudsman is now said to be calling for a national statutory body to represent social housing tenants and hold landlords to account, as well as a complete review of social housing funding, claiming the current system is unfit to maintain even the existing housing stock.

What the Report Found

The investigation, said to be based on hundreds of case reviews and over 3,000 pieces of evidence (including from MPs and councillors), paints a bleak picture of the so called social housing system in England, with the report finding a 474% increase in repair-related complaints from 2019–2024, with 72% of these complaints due to poor landlord practice. As well as the significant upsurge in the numbers of complaints recorded, its claimed £3.4 million pounds in compensation was ordered to be paid out to tenants in the past year alone. This happened despite the fact that landlords spent £9 billion on repairs and maintenance in 2023–24

Why Things Are Going Wrong...

According to the report, some of the core problems included Missing or outdated property records, with landlords expressing disregard for tenants’ physical and mental health needs, Temporary ‘quick fixes’ being made to tenants homes instead of real repairs as well as Delays, misdiagnoses, and poor quality control, with

some Landlords found to have been closing repair cases without doing the work—claiming “no access” without proof...

Its also led to claims at least one disabled resident was left without a working bathroom for months in one of the reports the Housing Ombudsman had dealt with.

The Ombudsman has made several urgent recommendations which include a Review social housing budgets to make sure landlords can properly maintain homes, Removing the red tape and barriers that stop housing maintenance from being modernised as well as the Creation of a legally protected tenants’ body to ensure residents have a strong voice in the decisions affecting their homes.

The Housing Ombudsman also said it wants to see an end the cold, corporate attitude of some landlords that seemingly treats tenants as "stock" & not with any dignity or respect, as well as Landlords being urged to build stronger relationships with tenants and contractors to prevent miscommunication and delays.

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The Ombudsman’s Warning

In a statement, Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said:

“Repairs are the single biggest driver of complaints—and a key factor in whether residents trust their landlord. If we don’t fix the way homes are maintained, the entire system could collapse.”

He added:

“It takes two years to build a home—but that creates a 60-year responsibility to maintain it. If we keep doing nothing, we’re choosing a path of managed decline for one of Europe’s largest social housing sectors.”

Mr Blakeway said the government must act now—not just to build new homes, but to protect and repair the ones we already have.