Service improvements

London Borough of Lambeth

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

Find out more about service improvements

When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.

Showing 1 - 10 of 17 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for London Borough of Lambeth as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (25 007 411)

    Category: Housing Date: 23-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Miss B complained the Council has failed to complete repair works at her temporary accommodation. The Council was at fault. It has delayed carrying out repair works and failed to ensure they have been completed. It also delayed making a suitability decision and its communication was poor. Miss B suffered distress and frustration and spent time and trouble chasing the Council. She was also denied the opportunity to request a review. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss B, ensure the repair works have been completed, make symbolic payments, and issue staff briefings.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff:• The legal duty lies with the Council to ensure applicants are in suitable accommodation which is free from disrepair, and where repair works are arranged, to ensure that they have been satisfactorily completed.• The Council has a duty to keep suitability under review, and recognise the types of communications from applicants which should trigger the Council to make a suitability decision.This will help to ensure repairs are completed in a satisfactory and timely manner and applicants are not denied the opportunity to request a suitability review of their accommodation.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (25 006 875)

    Category: Housing Date: 23-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Miss D complains about the handling of her homelessness application and being awarded an incorrect qualifying date for the housing register. I have found some fault by the Council including delay, an insufficient personalised housing plan and an incorrect qualifying date. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss D, correct the qualifying date and pay redress for avoidable distress.

    Service improvements

    set out what actions will be taken to ensure homelessness applicants are offered a timely appointment and assessment.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (25 003 153)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council placed her in unsuitable temporary accommodation and then failed to move her to a suitable alternative accommodation after it found the temporary accommodation was unsuitable. There were faults by the Council which caused injustice to Miss X. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    •provide guidance to the relevant housing staff to ensure they communicate and update applicants about the progress of their housing cases in a timely manner.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (25 002 805)

    Category: Housing Date: 02-Jan-2026

    Summary

    We found fault and service failure by the Council on Mr Y’s complaint about it failing to transfer him and his large family from his accommodation which it accepted was unsuitable. The Council failed to consider the suitability of the accommodation sooner when alerted to problems. It delayed carrying out an assessment and failed to identify it as unsuitable initially under its complaints procedure. The Council agreed to send Mr Y a written apology for the identified failures, pay £2,250 for the injustice caused living in unsuitable accommodation for 15 months, and will ensure officers explore, and keep under review, whether a household in temporary accommodation is statutory overcrowded when overcrowding is raised as a concern. This remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to ensure relevant officers are aware of the need to explore whether a household is legally statutory overcrowded when an applicant in temporary accommodation raises overcrowding as a concern.The Council agreed to provide evidence the failure at stage 1 of the complaints process to identify this as unsuitable accommodation was addressed.The Council agreed to ensure relevant officers are aware of the need to keep under review the ongoing suitability of temporary accommodation when overcrowding is raised by an applicant.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (25 001 080)

    Category: Housing Date: 23-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Ms F complained about the Council’s handling of her concerns about the suitability of her temporary accommodation. She said this impacted her and her family’s wellbeing and safety. We found fault by the Council for failing to complete the suitability review, action and progress disrepair with the managing agent, and to properly consider the anti-social behaviour. It also failed to adhere to its complaints policy and move the family to a suitable accommodation without delay. The Council agreed apologise to Ms F, make payment to acknowledge the injustice its faults caused her family, and complete a service improvement recommendation.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review why it did not consider and record its decision making around the anti-social behaviour and related safeguarding concerns raised in this case. It should consider its findings and set out the steps it intends to take in its Temporary Accommodation Improvement Project. This is to ensure all relevant teams are involved, views are recorded and shared internally, and decision making is evidenced and includes all relevant concerns.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (25 000 861)

    Category: Housing Date: 26-Feb-2026

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for how it handled Ms X’s reports of repairs, anti-social behaviour and for delaying assessing her homelessness situation. This meant Ms X had to wait longer for the Council to owe her a homelessness duty and has outstanding repair and anti-social behaviour issues at her property. The Council agreed to apologise, make a payment to Ms X for the distress caused and take steps to investigate the repair and anti-social behaviour issues which are ongoing.

    Service improvements

    Take steps to ensure staff know which Ombudsman they should signpost different complainants to.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (24 021 802)

    Category: Housing Date: 02-Feb-2026

    Summary

    We found fault on the complaint against the Council sent by Mr Y on behalf of his son, Mr Z, when dealing with his homeless application. It failed to properly consider whether it owed a duty to provide interim accommodation, delayed reaching a decision about whether it owed him a main housing duty, wrongly referred him to a housing provider, and missed a timescale under its own complaints procedure. The Council agreed to send Mr Z an apology, pay him £600, and review its processes. These actions remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review processes to ensure relevant officers are aware of the correct legal test when considering the Council’s duty to secure interim accommodation when processing homeless applications.The Council agreed to review processes to ensure section 184 decisions are made according to statutory timescales.The Council agreed to review why the complaint was not dealt with under its complaints procedure according to stated timescales and ensure these are met on future cases.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (24 020 522)

    Category: Housing Date: 31-Aug-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to ensure adequate repairs were carried out at her temporary accommodation. Miss X also complained the unresolved disrepair issues meant the temporary accommodation provided to her was unsuitable. She said the Council’s actions caused her avoidable distress and negatively impacted her mental health. We found fault by the Council. The Council has agreed to offer suitable alternative accommodation to Miss X and provide her with an apology and a financial remedy.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff of the Council’s legal duty to ensure applicants are in suitable accommodation which is free from disrepair or hazards

  • London Borough of Lambeth (24 014 177)

    Category: Housing Date: 23-Jun-2025

    Summary

    We found fault on Mr Y’s complaint about the Council failing to act on his reports of the condition of his temporary accommodation. Records were not made, retained, and checked about previous problems with the same property. It failed to carry out a housing needs assessment before he moved in or act promptly on his reports. Nor did it keep its suitability under review, and it failed to follow its own complaints procedure. The Council agreed to send Mr Y an apology for the failings, pay £3,850 as he lived in unsuitable accommodation, a symbolic £100 payment for increased electricity costs, and £400 for avoidable distress. It agreed to review procedures and remind officers of the need to keep temporary accommodation’s suitability under review.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review its procedures and protocols to ensure: i) proper records are made, retained, and checked about temporary accommodation where tenants are moved because of its poor condition; ii) checks are made before moving an applicant into such a property to ensure any remedial works necessary were done to make it suitable to let.The Council agreed to review why a housing needs assessment was not done before moving the complainant in to the property and remind relevant officers of the need to do them.The Council agreed to review why delays happened in responding to reports about the property’s condition and act to ensure these cannot be repeated on future cases.The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to keep interim/temporary accommodation’s suitability under review during its occupation.The Council agreed to review why there were failures with the complaints procedure and act to ensure these cannot be repeated on future cases.

  • London Borough of Lambeth (24 014 029)

    Category: Housing Date: 15-May-2025

    Summary

    We found fault on Ms Y’s complaint about the Council failing to provide her with the review decision it agreed to do during court proceedings. It failed to do the review within 8 weeks, tell her promptly of its decision that the property was unsuitable, and keep a record of its decision and reasons. She lost the chance to have the review done within this time period, commuted to her son’s school longer than needed, and suffered frustration. The Council agreed to send an apology, make a payment for the delays, establish why the review was not done within 8 weeks, remind staff about recording decisions, and to tell applicants about suitability decisions promptly.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to carry out a review to identify the reasons why the section 202 review did not take place within 8 weeks and act to ensure the delay experienced on this case is not repeated on future cases.The Council agreed to remind relevant staff of the need to record decisions about suitability.The Council agreed to remind relevant staff of the need to promptly inform applicants of the decision about suitability.

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