The Week in Housing: L&Q in the spotlight

Good afternoon.

This week, the Housing Ombudsman issued its highest-ever single set of fines – totalling ￡142,000 to be paid to more than 100 tenants – as it published an excoriating report into L&Q, the giant housing association.?

The report,?which we cover here , paints a deeply troubling picture of a failure in landlord services affecting hundreds, if not thousands, of residents.?

Michael Gove, the housing secretary,?has now summoned Fiona Fletcher-Smith , the landlord’s chief executive, to a meeting, telling her she has “failed your residents”.?

And a sharp reminder of the potential consequences of poor repairs was also delivered by a coroner. A report was sent to the association?regarding the death, through hypothermia, of a tenant who was waiting for a boiler repair .

Of course, long-term readers will know there is history here. In the 2010s, as housing associations diversified into market sale development and raised more private finance than ever before, L&Q soared above its peers.?

It posted the biggest surpluses, secured debt at the lowest prices, promised the biggest development and took on the hardest regeneration schemes. It seemed to be the A-student, the shining example for what housing associations could be with good corporate management.

But beneath this surface, there were always problems – a steady drip of stories from tenants and leaseholders about disrepair, service charges and complaints going unanswered.

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