How we are improving our Housing Services

Cutting the backlog of housing repairs by 80% and reducing the number of complaints made about repair work on Council homes are among the steps Hackney Council’s Housing Service has made towards enhancing the service it delivers.

Last July the Council set out how it was going to accelerate its Housing Services improvement plan - setting out its commitment to improve the service it provides to Council tenants and leaseholders, its targets and milestones for delivering the improvements and how it will involve tenants and leaseholders in shaping the service.

Over the last eight months the service has laid a solid foundation towards its commitment of improving the quality, efficiency and delivery of Housing Services for all tenants and leaseholders in Council owned homes.

The improvements made by the Council’s Housing Service have also led the Housing Ombudsman to officially confirm that it is ending the enhanced monitoring period that began after its investigation into the service. 

As a result of the continuing improvements since their 2025 investigation into the service the Housing Ombudsman has written to the Council to confirm they are satisfied with the progress being made in improving the service for tenants and leaseholders and dealing with housing complaints.

In addition the Regulator of Social Housing has also formally acknowledged that the Council’s work to improve the wider Service is showing results and heading in the right direction. 

Since last July the Council has:

• reduced its repairs backlog by 80% and by January of this year had halved its outstanding cases of reports of damp and mould
• completed 80% of non-emergency repairs within its time limits - putting it among the highest of comparable councils
• seen a steady improvement in the overall satisfaction of the service and the repairs it makes. Compared to 2022/2023, by mid 2025 overall satisfaction in the service had increased by 6% to 58%, and in the repairs service by 7% to 65%.
• seen a small fall in the number of complaints about repairs despite undertaking more work on homes and seeing fewer findings of maladministration made against it by the Housing Ombudsman
• begun a three year programme to survey all of the homes it rents to establish what potential work is needed to enhance them, the surrounding block and the estate. Around 40% of the Council’s homes have been surveyed so far and the remaining 60% expected to be surveyed by March 2027
• launched a Housing Advisory Panel - an independent body of professional housing experts and tenant representatives to help guide the Council’s efforts to continue to improve the service it provides.
• announced a £24 million three year programme to replace or renew 120 of the worst lifts in its blocks - with the 41 most unreliable lifts being targeted from June. This is part of the £550m it is investing into a capital refurbishment and renovation programme over the next 10 years.
• restructured the Housing Service to ensure it is fit for purpose to deliver quality services for tenants and leaseholders and transition from a borough wide one size fits all service to a neighbourhood based service

Cllr Guy Nicholson, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet member for Housing Management and Regeneration, said: “The service improvements in the Council’s Housing Service are commendable and are built on a solid foundation. However, no one in the Service is accepting that it's ‘job done’, there is still a lot more to do.

“The Improvement Plan and its delivery continues at pace, from a new lift programme to a new deal for Tenants and Resident Associations and improving the back office systems to implementing a new local neighbourhood approach for delivering Housing Services. All this and more is in progress.

“We have made sure that the Regulator and the Ombudsman's call for change is being delivered on. I thank them on behalf of the Council, tenants and leaseholders for their observations and challenge. 

“All welcome the Housing Ombudsman’s recognition of everyone’s efforts to deliver a better service for tenants and leaseholders and because of this tangible improvement the Ombudsman is formally ending the ‘enhanced monitoring’ of the service.

“All in Housing Services are committed to continuing to make sure that the improvement work continues at pace.”