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Regulator finds no standards breach after five-month investigation into Clarion repairs
Clarion has been cleared of a possible standards breach following a lengthy investigation by the English regulator which centred around homes involved in a major repairs scandal five years ago, Inside Housing can reveal.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) wrote to a group of councillors in Tower Hamlets, east London, last week to inform them that the probe, which lasted around five months, did not find that the 125,000-home landlord breached its consumer standards.
Councillors had referred a series of concerns about Clarion’s service on repairs, complaints handling and engagement with vulnerable tenants to the regulator in October.
But in a 13-page letter, seen by Inside Housing, the RSH said: “From the information we considered, we could see there were individual incidents of service failures, including in relation to Clarion’s handling of some complaints, but we have not seen evidence of systemic failings by Clarion which would necessitate regulatory action.”
Investigators at the regulator had considered the referral against its Home, Tenant Involvement and Empowerment and Neighbourhood and Community standards, but Clarion was found not to breach any of these measures.
One councillor involved in the referral criticised the decision, claiming it was “a new low” for the regulator.
Clarion, which is the largest housing association in the UK, owns around 4,400 social homes in Tower Hamlets, most of which were transferred from the local authority to one of its precursor organisations, Old Ford Housing Association, in 2004.
Repairs failings involving the homes resulted in a regulatory downgrade in 2015 and subsequent regulatory notice in 2016, around the time Clarion Housing Group was being formed through the largest merger in the sector’s history between Circle Housing Group and Affinity Sutton.
The saga unfolded during a period when the regulator rarely intervened over consumer matters and is often regarded as a difficult moment for the social housing sector’s reputation.
Legislation passed by the coalition government means the RSH can only take action on consumer standards when it finds evidence of “serious detriment” to tenants – a test set to be scrapped under measures announced in last year’s Social Housing White Paper.
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It is common for the RSH to investigate complaints about housing associations made by councillors, but the recent probe is understood to have been particularly intense due to the volume and breadth of concerns raised.
Many of the issues involve five blocks in Bow, which the RSH’s letter said are subject to high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour, according to Clarion.
Among the matters referred to the regulator was the fact that in the final quarter of 2019/20, Clarion only responded to 20% of complaints in Tower Hamlets within its 20-working day target.
The latest figures provided by Clarion showed its current performance is 48% in Tower Hamlets and 34% nationally, the RSH’s letter said.
It added Clarion had claimed that its complaints performance “has been impacted heavily by the pandemic and it recognises that in this service area it falls short of where it wants to be”, but it is taking steps to improve and is beginning to see quicker response times.
Elsewhere, the letter said Clarion had blamed a new IT system introduced in November 2019, which “it expects to bring significant benefits in the long term”.
The RSH agreed that “the service needs to improve” and has asked Clarion to provide updates on its complaints performance “over the coming months”.
However, it added “there were no indications” that Clarion’s complaints-handling procedures “as a whole are ineffective”.
On the repairs issues, the regulator told councillors that while “things have gone wrong” in individual cases, information provided by Clarion and the Housing Ombudsman did not point to “a widespread, systemic failure”.
Clarion had demonstrated “relatively high” tenant satisfaction scores, the letter said, and completed 94.38% of emergency repairs on time this year in Tower Hamlets despite citing resourcing issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The landlord has a continuous improvement plan in place for Tower Hamlets, which has been agreed with the council.
Marc Francis, a Labour councillor at Tower Hamlets Council, said: “We might only be a few councillors but we represent thousands of Clarion tenants and leaseholders, and the consistent feedback we get from many of them is that the organisation’s repairs service still isn’t fit for purpose.
“The regulator’s superficial response, which simply takes Clarion’s claims about its performance at its word without any sense check against the actual experience of tenants, is a new low. Residents will be incredulous at this supposed performance.”
A spokesperson for Clarion said: “As the largest social landlord in the country, it’s perfectly normal for the regulator to occasionally take a closer look at some of our services.
“Following questions raised by a small group of councillors in Tower Hamlets, who we are in regular contact with, the regulator has confirmed it has found no evidence of systemic failings and no breach of standards.
“We continue to work directly with our residents and local authority partners to continue to improve services and the customer experience.”
In a statement, the RSH said: “We consider any information we receive about registered social housing providers’ compliance with our consumer standards and take action if we find evidence of a breach that has caused or risked serious detriment to tenants.
“In accordance with our current remit and procedures, we have considered referrals about Clarion’s repairs services.
“We have not found evidence of systemic problems and will continue to monitor the action being taken by Clarion to address these complaints.”
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