On 16 August, Secretary of State Michael Gove MP, wrote a letter criticising the CEO of Ealing Council, Tony Clements, for a delayed response to a resident's complaint about a leak in their property.

The council initially responded to the resident's leak in their property, but the issue arose again, and the council failed to respond adequately.

Mr Gove in his letter said: "In this case, the resident, who had vulnerabilities, reported a leak they believed was coming from the property above. Despite some repairs having been carried out, two months later the issue was ongoing and again reported by the resident.  

"Six months after this, the issue was still unresolved. The resident escalated her complaint but did not receive a response until nine months later", he added  

Mr Gove explained that Ealing Council only intervened after the "Ombudsman had issued a Complaint Handling Failure Order" and after they had to be involved "numerous" times.  

He wrote: "You have failed your resident. Everyone, particularly those who are vulnerable, should be able to expect to have their complaint taken seriously, and have repairs carried out in reasonable time." 

Ealing, Westminster, Tandridge, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and Lambeth councils all received a letter highlighting details of severe maladministration findings by the Housing Ombudsman (image via ukparliment.com).

In response to Mr Gove's letter, Ealing Council affirms that they are dedicated to delivering "high-quality housing services" and being "the best housing service in London," but they understand their failure to this particular resident on this occasion.

The council said: "We are committed to providing high-quality housing services to our residents and take complaints and grievances very seriously. However, we acknowledge that, in this case, our procedures and communication failed to meet the expected standards.    

"We sincerely apologised to the tenants affected by the level of service they received. This level of service is not what any tenant should expect from us.   

Since then, Ealing Council said that they have changed their "internal complaint-handling process" so that it is more accessible to residents and that the contractor who worked on the property with the leak has been replaced.

The council added: "The maladministration findings from the Housing Ombudsman service have allowed us to review where our standards of service were not at the levels we expect and this has allowed us to improve the service to benefit all of our residents.   

"Ealing Council prioritises vulnerable tenants and seeks to do our best for our residents. We are rapidly improving our repair service with the new contractor and management to ensure we meet the standards our residents expect."  

To read Michael Gove's letter in full, click here