Lambeth Council

The Housing Ombudsman is the independent body that investigates complaints about social landlords. When it finds a landlord got things wrong, it makes a finding of "maladministration" — or "severe maladministration" for the most serious failings.

The 2024-25 performance report. The Ombudsman's landlord report for Lambeth covers cases it decided between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. Of 276 findings counted, 255 were maladministration — a rate of 92%, against a national rate of 71% (and 80% for landlords of a similar size and type).^[1] Forty of the report's 292 total findings were severe maladministration — 14%, against 5% nationally — and the largest highlighted repairs sub-category was leaks, damp and mould, with 69 findings, 24 of them severe.^[1] Across the year the Ombudsman made 559 orders, issued 3 complaint handling failure orders, and recorded £147,517 in compensation.^[1]

Earlier findings. In February 2022 the Ombudsman published a special report on Lambeth's complaint handling, prompted by the number of complaint handling failure orders against the council; it identified poor record keeping, delays in responding to complaints, and failures in repair services.^[5] In August 2025 Lambeth appeared in the Ombudsman's report on severe maladministration in window repairs, which stated it "found severe maladministration in 3 cases for how London Borough of Lambeth handled window repairs". One case saw the council "left a child's bedroom with a boarded-up window after it delayed a replacement for over 3 years".^[6]

“Ultimately, we should not need a new standard for a landlord to see that leaving a child with a boarded-up bedroom window for several years is inexcusable.”^[6]

Housing Ombudsman Service, Learning from severe maladministration (August 2025) (13 August 2025)

What the council has said and done. The council said it had "completed reviews of its approach to handling repairs and complaints", and had "also invested hundreds of millions of pounds in maintaining and improving its council homes and estates, and made significant improvements to services".^[6] It has since carried out its largest-ever stock condition survey — around 17,000 homes — and published a Housing Asset Management Framework in August 2025.^[3]

“Ultimately, we should not need a new standard for a landlord to see that leaving a child with a boarded-up bedroom window for several years is inexcusable.”^[6]

Housing Ombudsman Service, Learning from severe maladministration (August 2025) (13 August 2025)

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is the government body that checks social landlords meet required standards for safe, decent homes. Since 2024 the RSH has been inspecting social landlords and giving each a consumer grade from C1 (the strongest) to C4.

Lambeth's grade is C2. In a judgement published on 27 November 2024, following an inspection, the regulator graded Lambeth Council C2: "Our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed."^[2]

What the judgement found. The regulator said the council meets legal health and safety requirements and has "a suite of strategic, preventative and reactive measures to tackle damp and mould in its homes", and that while some homes fail the Decent Homes Standard — the government's minimum standard for social housing — the council is "reducing the number of non-decent homes through planned investment". The key weakness it identified was repairs: it found "relatively low levels of satisfaction with repairs" and said "action is needed to ensure that Lambeth Council is delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service".^[2] The council's own published figures for 2024/25 report that 11.7% of its homes did not meet the Decent Homes Standard.^[3] Regulatory grades are reviewed from time to time and may change — the date above is the one that matters.

A historic regulatory notice, now withdrawn. Separately, on 13 November 2019 the regulator issued a regulatory notice — a formal published finding of a breach — against Lambeth for breaching its Home Standard, over failures in statutory health and safety compliance across fire safety, gas safety and asbestos management.^[8] The regulator withdrew that notice on 28 May 2021, recording that "the issues giving rise to the Regulatory Notice have been resolved". It is a separate matter from the 2024 consumer-standards judgement above.^[9]

Whatever a landlord's track record, its legal duties are the same — and they are strong.

Repairs. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Lambeth Council must keep the structure and exterior of your home in repair — the roof, walls, windows and doors — and keep the installations for heating, hot water, gas, electricity, water and sanitation in proper working order. This applies to almost every council tenancy and cannot be signed away in a tenancy agreement.

Fitness for human habitation. Under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 (section 9A of the 1985 Act), your home must also be fit to live in — free from serious hazards, including damp and mould that could harm your health.

Awaab's Law. Since 27 October 2025, the first phase of Awaab's Law has set legally binding timescales for social landlords, including councils, to investigate and act on emergency hazards and on damp and mould.^[10] A second phase — not yet in force — will extend the rules to a wider range of hazards from 30 November 2026.^[11] The disrepair page sets out what those timescales require.

Repairs and complaints. The council publishes target timescales for emergency, urgent, routine and planned repairs,^[14] and runs a two-stage complaints process where work is not done^[16] — both are set out on the disrepair page. It also says it runs an internal Awaab's Law preparedness programme, with dedicated damp and mould specialists, and a doors-and-windows replacement programme to cut the risk of damp and mould.^[3]