Inside Housing – News – Focus on data: Poor record keeping is ‘ubiquitous’ in the sector

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A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “Lambeth has over 33,000 council houses and our priority is to ensure that all are safe and well-maintained for our tenants.

“We have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in improving our homes and council properties, and making improvements to the daily delivery of repair and maintenance work.

“But we know that managing information is also vital to providing the best possible service to our residents, and we apologize for any instances where record keeping has fallen below our standards.

“So we have worked hard, often with the Housing Ombudsman, to improve our service in this area.

“For example, we’ve instituted additional training for staff and contractors and introduced a dynamic appointment system that provides complete visibility and real-time updating of repair appointments.

“In addition, we have invested in a dedicated housing portal that now allows residents to report their repairs online and upload photos to aid in diagnosis.

“We also have a dedicated housing database that ensures home repair and maintenance information is held securely against uniquely referenced properties and leases.

“This has now been expanded to include planned maintenance projects, so all job information (individual repairs and larger maintenance projects) is maintained in one system to enable efficient management and retrieval of property-specific information. .

“We are continuously monitoring our knowledge and information management, along with all other parts of our service.

“We will continue to positively engage with the ombudsman and are committed to addressing any issues that arise to ensure we provide the best possible service to all of our tenants.”

Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the Client Services Group at L&Q, said: “We take all Housing Ombudsman interventions very seriously and are committed to learning from them to improve the services we provide.

“We are already addressing the issues raised by this report through an extensive transformation program that will improve and simplify the ways we work and transform the tools and technologies we use at L&Q.

“This will improve the quality of the data and the way we capture and manage information to drive better services for residents.

“At the same time, work is also underway to improve the way we handle complaints.

“We are actively working to improve our record keeping, introducing a new quality assurance process and providing enhanced training for all resident-facing colleagues.

“In everything we do, we make sure to harness the insights and learn from our residents to drive positive change.”

A Notting Hill Genesis spokesperson said: “We always seek to uphold high standards and deal with complaints quickly and effectively.

“Every time we fall below those standards it is disappointing and we have apologized to the affected resident.

“As with any complaint, we will take into account what we can learn for the future and review our internal processes to ensure we are in the best position to provide the highest level of service to those who live in our homes.”