She came home from hospital in January 2025 to a room with no heating and no hot water. She had just had a caesarean. She had a newborn and a toddler. The room was in a borough she didn’t know, and she had been asking to be moved for four months. Nobody had replied.
The woman, referred to as Miss X in an official report, had been placed in temporary accommodation by Wandsworth Council after fleeing domestic abuse. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found the council at fault, ruling there was injustice caused by its failures.
The council was found to have given no thought to her circumstances: a male landlord entered her room without notice while she was partly dressed; the council knew she was a domestic abuse survivor. And it was not the first time the council had been warned about this exact failure. The LGSCO has ruled against Wandsworth Council in a similar case in 2021.
The case adds a new dimension to our ongoing coverage of Wandsworth’s housing failures. Previous investigations drew on the Housing Ombudsman’s findings on disrepair. This ruling comes from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which covers homelessness and social care. It is a second independent watchdog now finding against the council.
Four months of silence
Miss X told the council she was homeless on 28 August 2024. She was fleeing domestic abuse, pregnant, and had a child under two. The council placed her in self-contained temporary accommodation in another borough: one room and a bathroom.
Between August and 19 December 2024, Miss X and her social worker contacted the council repeatedly. Both raised the same concerns: the room was too small, and they could not see how Miss X would manage safely after giving birth with two young children in that space.
The Ombudsman’s finding on this period could not be starker:
“I have seen no evidence the Council considered the concerns Miss X and her social worker raised before 23 December.”
Not delayed. Not inadequate. No documented response of any kind across nearly four months.
On 23 December the council finally made contact, offering alternative accommodation that was unfurnished and not yet available. In early January 2025, Miss X gave birth to her second child by caesarean section.
When she returned from hospital, the room had no heating and no hot water. Miss X says she had to contact the Fire Brigade before the council provided a heater.
On 27 January, the council arranged an appointment for Miss X to sign the tenancy agreement for the new property. The only furniture was a cooker and curtains. A bed had been ordered but was not ready; Miss X was given an air bed for two days. On 3 February 2025, nearly a month after giving birth and more than five months after first presenting as homeless, she was finally moved.
The Ombudsman ruled: “As Miss X had to stay in the accommodation for almost a month with two children I therefore consider Miss X has suffered an injustice.” The council was ordered to apologise, pay £750 in compensation (£350 for the period in unsuitable accommodation after the birth and £400 for the distress of having four months of contacts ignored) and issue new guidance to officers.
The landlord access failure
Separate from the accommodation failures, Miss X raised a further concern: the male landlord entered her room without notice while she was partly dressed. The council’s position is that officers knock loudly before entering. Miss X says that did not happen.
The Ombudsman did not resolve that factual dispute. What it found was more significant than either version: the council had given no consideration at all to whether a male should be accessing the room of a domestic abuse survivor.
The Homelessness Code of Guidance requires councils to consider whether mixed-gender accommodation is appropriate for domestic abuse victims. In this case, that consideration never happened.
“In this case the Council knew Miss X had fled domestic abuse and was therefore vulnerable,” the Ombudsman found. “I would have expected the Council to take that into account when arranging accommodation checks.”
The ruling continued: “Given Miss X had fled domestic abuse I am concerned the Council did not give any consideration to the circumstances under which it would be appropriate to enter Miss X’s room. Nor have I seen any evidence the Council considered whether it would be appropriate for a male to enter the room.”
The remedies order requires the council to issue guidance to officers on three specific areas: suitability of accommodation for households with children under two; suitability for those fleeing domestic abuse; and male access to accommodation where the resident has fled domestic abuse. The council accepted all findings in full and paid the £750 compensation immediately.
The same failure, four years after it was supposed to be fixed
That third element (the male landlord access issue) makes this case sharper than a straightforward housing failure. It was not a new problem.
In 2021, the LGSCO ruled that Wandsworth had failed a different domestic abuse survivor and ordered the council to train its housing officers on how to handle domestic abuse cases. The council accepted those findings and complied.
Five years later, in this case, the same council gave “no consideration” to whether a male should access a domestic abuse survivor’s room, a basic safeguarding question the 2021 training was supposed to address.
Wandsworth’s housing department has faced sustained scrutiny from multiple watchdogs. A series of Housing Ombudsman rulings exposed systematic failures in how the council handled damp, mould, and disrepair complaints from council tenants. In May 2025, the ombudsman found the council at fault over a four-year leak failure, noting its defensive approach to legitimate complaints. Previous Putney.news coverage has documented a separate case where a homeless abuse survivor was failed and a family left traumatised by a two-year housing nightmare.
The LGSCO decision in this case was issued on 17 December 2025 and published publicly in mid-February 2026, after the standard publication lag while the council was given time to comply with the remedies order.
A Wandsworth Council spokesperson told Local Democracy Reporter Charlotte Lilywhite: “We take our responsibilities towards vulnerable residents incredibly seriously and we are committed to providing safe, secure housing for those that need it. We are sorry for the distress this individual experienced and have offered an apology, and paid the compensation in full. We are committed to learning from this experience to improve our processes and ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
The council accepted all of the Ombudsman’s findings.
What to do if you are in a similar situation
Anyone fleeing domestic abuse and in need of emergency housing in Wandsworth can contact the council directly through its domestic abuse emergency accommodation guidance.
Hestia, Wandsworth’s local domestic abuse provider, can be reached on 0203 879 3544 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm).
The National Domestic Abuse Helpline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 0808 2000 247.
Anyone who has experienced failures in how the council has handled their housing case and has exhausted the council’s own complaints process can take their case to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman free of charge at lgo.org.uk.
