By Carl Davis
The Housing Ombudsman’s finding of severe maladministration against Clarion Housing Group, the largest housing association in Britain, over the preventable death of Mark Pearce went almost uncommented upon within the social housing sector.
There were no hastily convened press conferences of executives apologising for the mistreatment of Mark. No outpourings of horror at the normalisation of discriminatory behaviour towards resident with disabilities and mental health problems. No swathe of new measures to prevent it happening again.
Source: The Guardian
Amongst disabled housing association tenants and residents – and all those who are concerned with equality and inclusion – this prompts a broader concern about the efficacy of the Housing Ombudsman’s system in addressing complaints mishandling and severe maladministration. L&Q for example has twice the national average of Ombudsman ‘severe maladministration’ findings in spite of being led by the chair of the G15 group; the collective of the largest housing associations in the country.
Systemic Discrimination Overlooked
The Housing Ombudsman’s special investigation into L&Q, released in July 2023, revealed critical issues regarding their approach to residents with disabilities and mental health problems. The findings accepted a pattern of heavy-handed, unfair, and dismissive treatment but these issues were never formally acknowledged as disability discrimination. L&Q’s chief executive, Fiona Fletcher-Smith, never had to address the specific allegations of discriminatory practices within her organisation.
The sector and the individual landlords are able to cling on to negative perceptions of residents with disabilities and mental health problems instead of learning from special investigations by the Ombudsman.
The Housing Ombudsman has repeatedly found ‘severe maladministration’ against Clarion, but is unable to impose meaningful sanctions
The Ombudsman’s report on the Clarion case highlights the tragic consequences of inadequate responses to noise complaints and the subsequent actions taken to address these shortcomings. However, it notably lacks a critical examination of negative perceptions and the mistreatment of Mark Pearce.
Mark had a history of mental health issues, but the report fails to delve into the extent to which Mark’s pleas for help were dismissed or diminished because of institutionalised discrimination against residents with mental health problems or neurodiverse conditions. So, while the Ombudsman’s report offers some valuable learning points around processes, it overlooks the critical issue of systemic bias against vulnerable residents.
The Standardisation Tendency
The Ombudsman’s recommendation for landlords to adopt a ‘tailored approach’ towards such residents glosses over the underlying issues of discrimination and bias. For any large corporate body, the tendency is towards standardisation to make administration easier. Enabling a tailored or flexible approach requires a determined effort and commitment that is currently absent from those in charge of service delivery at the leading housing associations.
The consequence of these conditions is that the sector continues to be left to choose whether to acknowledge, record, and consider disability in its decision-making processes, even though compliance with the Equality Act is mandatory, not optional.
This situation calls for a thorough review and potentially a restructuring of the Housing Ombudsman’s system to ensure that it can effectively serve its purpose without being influenced by the interests , prejudices and discriminatory behaviour and practices of the social landlords it is supposed to regulate.
See more about SHAC’s Disability Visibility campaign and resources.
23 November 2023
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There would be no warnings of care or concerns regarding disabled people in social housing. My situation was very similar to Mark Pearce but I survived my attempted suicide.
The housing association wanted to close my case without any resolution. This would have needed up with the same outcome as mark Pearce but other factors took place. I am not homeless because of everything that occured. My life wasn’t worth it.
It’s taken my life from me and I don’t see a future. The housing association do not acknowledge or take any responsibility for their failings of actions or care.
I am now going discriminated against by my previous housing association. This is wrong as they cause problems and provide not help or support. The ASB tenants who cause the noise get to live happily ever after.
I am determined to make a fuss just to be heard.
If anyone else has experienced this it would be very interesting.
Thank you for sharing your experience Victoria and I’m sorry to hear how much you’ve suffered. I hope you get justice in the end.
Until housing associations like L&Q are taken to court and fined millions, and negligent staff prosecuted in court, then unfortunately this is, and will continue to happen. I’ve tried everything to get L&Q to fix raw sewage issues affecting my flat, life, and mental health, for coming on 10 years now. The Sunday mirror done a piece on my situation, I’ve sued them multiple times, they’ve broken the law, committed fraud, broken the tenancy agreement 100s of times over, my ombudsman inquiry was upheld, maladministration multiple times, apology email from L&Q (not accepted) told by subcontractors that L&Q told them to do “the bare minimum”, when I requested fixing safety issues. Yet the sewage pipe on my balcony is once again spilling raw sewage onto my balcony, and could collapse at any time. The result of the “bare minimum”. The shocking thing is, this has been going on for 10 years now. I’ve developed a phobia, blah blah blah. Prosecutions are required, hefty fines and prison sentences for the worst offenders. The corruption is rotten, and some of these big associations have people in their pockets. Subcontractors are clowns, and committing fraud. They’re allowed to get away with it. Even lawyers can’t do anything.
The Housing Ombudsman’s classification of this preventable death as primarily a noise nuisance issue is disingenuous and deeply concerning. There is an urgent need for an independent investigation into preventable deaths of residents with disabilities and vulnerabilities in social housing. An open professional audit, with the involvement of residents’ testimonies.
I am aware of five such deaths, three of which have been reported in the media.
One of these deaths involved a disabled neighbor about whom I raised concerns to the Regulator of Social Housing regarding his mistreatment, neglect, and the disregard of his disability by L&Q. This maltreatment had occurred for years and I had complained to the Regulator months before the resident passed away after he became totally despondent about being neglected and refused to eat after being hospitalised.
L&Q behaved appallingly towards this man and was still sending threats to evict him over gas check appointments six months after he died.
L&Q was also involved in another preventable death of another disabled resident, as recently reported by the BBC following the inquest. where poor record keeping, failure to share information and L&Q’s decision not to act on serious concerns about the health and safety of the disabled resident that she, her family and GP had repeatedly raised had clearly contributed to causing her death. I suspect that the number of these completely unacceptable preventable deaths is alarmingly high
As there is no reason or care to investigate deaths due to this type of neglect… This is the housing association solution. If a tenant takes their life the problems go away and the property is freed up for a new tenant. Sad but true.
I am a vulnerable tenant and just came across this article. I have been tormented by music and more and threatened by the tenant living below me (converted Victorian house) for 26 years. In addition lied to by Clarion, Environmental Protection and the Police. Everytime being made to feel like I’m the perpetrator. More recently I have been falsely accused of racial abuse and have been asked to voluntarily attend a police interview, if not voluntarily, could be arrested. Clarion and all the other organisations have done nothing to help! I am too at my wits end!