By Sammie Jones-
Newham Council has been ordered to pay £16,832 to residents for failing to deal with their complaints properly and obstructing investigations.
The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), which probes violations of rights by local authorities ordered the compensation pay out after it investigated 35 complaints against Newham Council between March 2018 and March 2019.
The Ombudsman upheld 27 complaints, majority of complaints relating to housing, care or waste collection issues. One of the complaints related to a woman awarded £162 after she reported 19 missed bin collections in just six months. Newham was also ordered to pay two siblings £800 for delaying to provide adequate carers.
Another case saw a resident awarded £6,000 to cover legal fees and the “trouble, distress and outrage” caused by the unacceptable way the council dealt with a complaint about its “NewShare” housing scheme. The order will set a precedent for members of the public who are able to demonstrate that a complaint was not handled properly by the council, and could even lead to more complains to the local Ombudsman in various parts of the country.
Newham Council , whose incompetence was exposed by the ruling, faced severe criticism for its “repeatedly poor handling” of two complaints relating to the shared ownership scheme.
LGO Michael King said: “My investigators faced significant difficulties when investigating two complaints. The council took the view that one of the complaints was not in our jurisdiction to investigate.
When my investigator confirmed that it was, the council did not send the information we requested until we threatened a witness summons. In the other complaint, the council provided information that was incorrect.
“My investigators arranged to inspect the council’s files and interview those concerned about both complaints in May 2018. Many of those invited to the interviews did not attend and did not give a reason.
“The council only provided some files for one complaint and none for the other. Those interviewed were not aware of the second complaint. The council apologised and said it would courier the missing information to us the next day. It did not do this, and we again had to threaten to issue a witness summons.”
Mr King added that the “repeatedly poor handling of these complaints is unacceptable” and said the council should “address its approach to complaints as a matter of urgency”.
A spokesman for Newham Council said:
“We are not surprised by the issues raised by the Ombudsman regarding these cases, which happened before the new administration took over in May last year. Urgent action was taken to address complaints such as these with a full review of all council services as part of a corporate restructure.
“We take any feedback from the LGO seriously and measures are now in place to ensure information provided in future is both timely and accurate. Our restructured complaints service constantly reviews its operations and performance.
We will continue to identify and make improvements to our service to ensure all complaints are thoroughly investigated, quickly responded to and the right outcomes achieved.”