Wandsworth Council has once again been investigated over serious housing mismanagement — this time for ignoring a roof leak for four years and failing to respond to escalating complaints from a leaseholder, prompting a formal investigation and wide-ranging reforms by the Housing Ombudsman.
The damning verdict [pdf], published alongside an earlier independent audit report, found “severe maladministration” in how the council responded to disrepair at a flat in All Saints Estate, and “maladministration” in how it handled the resident’s complaint. The case triggered a wider order, requiring Wandsworth to overhaul how it manages repairs, oversees housing co-operatives, and learns from complaints.
But far from an isolated incident, the case adds to a growing body of evidence that Wandsworth’s housing services are struggling to meet basic standards of safety, communication, and care.
Alton residents with sewage leaks — 14 days and counting
Just today, Putney.news publishes a new investigation into the council’s response to a separate and ongoing crisis at Denmead House on the Alton Estate, where residents have spent nearly two weeks living with raw waste water leaking inside their flats.
Tenants say they are emptying buckets multiple times a day, sleeping in lounges to avoid the smell, and receiving no meaningful updates or repairs from Wandsworth Council. The situation appears linked to shared internal waste pipes affecting a cluster of flats. Despite repeated emergency calls, photographs taken by council contractors, and vague promises to escalate the issue, no repair work has begun.
The Alton case, like that of All Saints Estate, illustrates the impact of long-standing infrastructure issues, poor communication, and a fragmented housing management system. Residents describe exhaustion, health concerns, and silence from officials.
“It’s not just about being inconvenienced,” one Alton tenant told us. “It’s about being ignored. And it’s about the risk to our health.”
Four years, no action — and still no one in charge of complaints
In the All Saints case, the Ombudsman found that Wandsworth Council had handed over responsibility to a housing co-op but didn’t put proper checks in place to make sure repairs were managed well.
The agreement between the council and the co-op didn’t set out clear steps or deadlines for dealing with problems, which meant repairs were delayed and communication broke down. Other tenants affected by the same issue weren’t contacted until late 2024 — even though the leak started as far back as December 2020.
After the ruling in July 2024, Wandsworth Council began making changes to stop the same problems happening again. It brought in new staff for the housing team, gave co-op managers extra training on handling repairs and complaints, and created a clearer process for how repairs should be reported and followed up. The council also introduced new software to help track roof inspections and added a regular slot at its Co-op Forum meetings to review complaints and make sure lessons are learned.
A council spokesperson said the changes demonstrate “significant improvements” in the way Wandsworth responds to repairs and complaints — though internal auditors will revisit the case in 2025 to assess whether these improvements have actually improved things.
The report noted that the council still has no elected member responsible for complaints.
A pattern of neglect — from fire safety to mould to sewage
The Ombudsman’s ruling follows a series of problems uncovered this year that point to widespread failings in Wandsworth’s housing stock:
- Explosions and unsafe gas installations in Roehampton (Burke Close);
- Delayed boiler servicing and dismissive internal emails following fire safety inspections;
- Long-term damp, mould and ventilation problems across multiple estates;
- A failing complaints process that residents describe as obstructive, inconsistent and opaque.
These cases contributed to a ‘C3’ consumer standards rating handed down by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in early 2025 — one of the lowest possible scores.
The Housing Ombudsman included Wandsworth in a national review of landlords who mishandled serious repair complaints — and later received poor ratings from the Regulator of Social Housing. The Ombudsman said complaints like these can reveal bigger problems and urged councils to learn from them, not just fix single cases.
The ombudsman Richard Blakeway warned councils that complaints must be seen as an early warning system, not a threat.
“Proactive learning from complaints isn’t just a legal duty — it’s essential to protect residents from ongoing distress.”
Continued defensive attitude
Unfortunately all the evidence so far points to a council that remains defensive and defiant. At a council oversight meeting considering the C3 rating last month, officials and cabinet members downplayed the seriousness of their failings, noting that half of local authorities inspected so far nationally have received the same rating – while glossing over the fact that others had done far better.
“It’s not what we hoped for,” one officer said, noting that he felt “quite sad” about the judgment before claiming that it was “all fixable.” Officers also claimed that the poor rating was the result of changing methodology and their approach was “fit for purpose up until recently” – implying it was the housing regulator’s capriciousness, rather than systemic failures, that were behind the poor rating.
Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Aydin Dikerdem also downplayed the verdict. “We know it’s still not where we want it to be,” he told the meeting. “But we’ve started taking actions based on direct feedback, and we are seeing movement in the right direction.”
Incredibly, he pointed to a tenant satisfaction score of 22% as a sign of progress – because previously it had stood at 16%. In case it needs pointing out, a satisfaction score of 22% means that 78% – more than three-quarters of tenants – were not satisfied with the council’s response.
That same attitude was also on display when officials and Dikerdem were quizzed at an earlier meeting over a series of gas explosions on the Lennox Estate in Roehampton and the council’s efforts to distance itself from any responsibility.
That time, criticism of the council’s response was dismissed as politically motivated with Cllr Dikerdem claiming to be a victim of “misinformation” while officers claimed their handling of the response had been “exemplary” despite residents being openly critical of it.
For Wandsworth residents, the protection that the Housing Ombudsman hopes to instil feels a long way off.
