Norwich's Housing Horror Laid Bare by Ombudsman
The housing ombudsman has a statutory duty to investigate the performance of local councils’ housing provision. Labour-run Norwich City Council’s most recent report showed consistent failures across the board in both performance and tenant satisfaction, significantly under-achieving both in their obligations of service and the performance of comparable local authorities.
In the report, the council admitted that it was not their routine practice to keep residents informed about a complaint if it was deemed unlikely to receive an official response within the ombudsman's required time frame. NCC missed said target 55% of the time with so-called “stage 1” complaints, which the report stated were most commonly regarding the non-provision of an expected service. So many people who have been let down by the council not providing them a service, and who report it, aren’t even given the courtesy of an update. Only 21% of tenants were satisfied with how complaints are handled by the city council.
Your local Lib Dem team has long been concerned about troubles contacting Norwich City Council, with questioning last year revealing that letters received at city hall are not internally tracked, with no way of knowing if communication has even been read.
As well as unprovided services, polling of council tenants revealed that 52.6% were not satisfied that their communal areas are kept clean or well maintained, and 79% aren’t satisfied with the council’s approach to anti-social behaviour. Combined with the horror stories we uncovered last year of council properties in our area sitting empty for several years, including one with a rodent infestation on the Avenues, there’s no doubt residents are being short-changed.
Responding to this damning report, Norwich Lib Dem University Ward spokesperson James Hawketts said:
Lib Dem University Ward Spokesperson, James Hawketts
"Every year council tax goes up, and yet seemingly every year the service provided seems to get worse. We know there are pressures on local government – but this report lays bare the fact that Norwich is doing so much worse than it should be.
The very least our Labour councillors could do is pick up the phone once in a while – or answer an email from locals who have a genuine housing issue. So many people send letter after letter only to get no response. What’s the point of local councillors who run our services into the ground then refuse to talk to their electorate?"