Haringey Council slammed by Housing Watchdog

Labour-run Haringey Council has been slammed by the UK’s housing watchdog (ombudsman) for a “culture of apathy and acceptance of poor practice” in its dealings with council tenants and leaseholders. This comes just a couple of months after Labour councillors refused to apologise to tenants for a litany of failings, including on fire safety measures.

The ombudsman was scathing of the council’s performance, citing “extremely poor” handling of leaseholder complaints; “unreasonable delays in the landlord’s response to reports of disrepair”; and “clear evidence of service failure”.

In one particularly egregious case, the council claimed a resident had “poor behaviour” and withdrew services from him for a year, including refusing to carry out repairs - but failed to produce a single piece of evidence of this so-called poor behaviour.

Cllr Dawn Barnes (Lib Dem-Fortis Green), Opposition Spokesperson for Housing, said:

“Haringey residents deserve far better than this abysmal, failing service. The Labour Party have run our borough for over 60 years, and they have nowhere left to hide on this issue. They have failed tenants and leaseholders again and again, and no amount of empty promises will make up for the appalling negligence uncovered in this report.”

Notes:

Ombudsman Report