Greenwich Council

The Housing Ombudsman is the independent body that investigates complaints about social landlords. When it finds a landlord got things wrong, it makes a finding of "maladministration" — or "severe maladministration" for the most serious failings.

The 2025/26 performance report. The Ombudsman decided 60 Greenwich Council cases in 2025/26, excluding cases outside its jurisdiction or withdrawn.^[1] Its rate counts service failure as well as maladministration: 95 of the 142 findings it counted — 54 maladministration and 41 service failure, with no severe maladministration — a rate of 67%.^[1] That compares with a national rate of 62% and 70% for landlords of a similar size and type.^[1]

What the findings were about. Managing relations drew the most findings, 61, with 70% upheld against a national rate of 57% for that category.^[1] Repairs followed, with 55 findings and 67% upheld — below the national 72%.^[1] Complaint handling was the largest single sub-category, with 52 findings.^[1]

A damp and mould case. In March 2026 the Ombudsman found maladministration in how the council handled a secure tenant's reports of damp and mould. It found the council "delayed its response to the resident’s report of damp and mould in January 2022 by approximately seven months, which fell outside its repair timescales".^[4] The council had offered £120. The Ombudsman ordered an apology and £400 in total, including that £120.^[4]

“The landlord delayed its response to the resident’s report of damp and mould in January 2022 by approximately seven months, which fell outside its repair timescales.”^[4]

Housing Ombudsman Service, Royal Borough of Greenwich (202337916) (26 March 2026, 202337916)

Orders and compensation. The Ombudsman made 184 orders and 41 recommendations, and 2 complaint handling failure orders.^[1] Compensation ordered or recommended came to £23,515.^[1] The report records every order due in the year as complied with within three months.^[1]

The trend. The 2025/26 rate is lower than the council's 85% across 28 decided cases in 2023/24 and 88% across 33 in 2024/25.^[1] From October 2025 the Ombudsman started examining complaint handling in every case it investigated, which it says affects how the 2025/26 rates compare with earlier years.^[5]

What tenants say. In the council's 2025/26 tenant satisfaction measures — survey figures social landlords must publish each year — 65.1% of tenants were satisfied with the housing service overall.^[6] Among tenants who had a repair in the previous 12 months, 71.6% were satisfied with the repairs service.^[6] Among those who had made a complaint, 28.6% were satisfied with how it was handled — its lowest satisfaction score, and down on the year before.^[6]

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is the government body that checks social landlords meet required standards for safe, decent homes. Since 2024 it has been inspecting landlords and giving each a consumer grade from C1 (the strongest) to C4.

No grade and no notice in force. The regulator has no regulatory notice — a formal published finding of a breach — in force against Greenwich Council.^[7] Nor has it published a consumer standards grade for the council; its most recent formal action was a notice, not a grading judgement.^[7] This is the position as at the date this page was last checked, and may change.

The 2022 regulatory notice. The council made a self-referral to the regulator in May 2022, having identified that it had fallen behind on statutory health and safety requirements.^[2] The regulator published a regulatory notice on 31 August 2022, finding the council in breach of the Home Standard.^[2] The council had more than 400 outstanding fire risk assessments and more than 10,000 homes without a current electrical condition report. It also lacked valid communal asbestos surveys for hundreds of blocks, and current water-safety risk assessments for more than 80.^[2] The regulator concluded that, as a result of the breach, "there was the potential for serious detriment to RB Greenwich’s tenants".^[2]

“there was the potential for serious detriment to RB Greenwich’s tenants”^[2]

Regulator of Social Housing, Regulatory Notice: London Borough of Greenwich (31 August 2022) (31 August 2022)

Withdrawn in 2026. The regulator withdrew the notice on 25 February 2026, stating: "The issues giving rise to London Borough of Greenwich’s Regulatory Notice have been resolved."^[3] It also removed the council from its published A-to-Z list of landlords.^[7] The council said that, as of January 2026, it had completed all fire risk assessments and its asbestos and legionella risk-assessment programmes, and 94.5% of electrical testing across 19,284 homes.^[8] It is running a £430m programme to improve council homes, with a survey of the condition of all of them under way.^[9] These are the council's own figures.

“The issues giving rise to London Borough of Greenwich’s Regulatory Notice have been resolved.”^[3]

Regulator of Social Housing, Withdrawn Regulatory Notice: London Borough of Greenwich (31 August 2022) (25 February 2026)

Whatever a landlord's track record, its legal duties are the same — and they are strong.

Repairs. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Greenwich Council must keep the structure and exterior of your home in repair — the roof, walls, windows and doors. It must also keep the installations for heating, hot water, gas, electricity, water and sanitation in proper working order. This applies to almost every council tenancy and cannot be signed away in a tenancy agreement.

Fitness for human habitation. Under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, your home must also be fit to live in — free from serious hazards, including damp and mould that could harm your health.

Awaab's Law. Awaab's Law now sets legally binding timescales for social landlords to investigate hazards such as damp and mould and make homes safe — the disrepair page sets them out.^[11]

Safety checks. The council must also meet statutory health and safety duties — gas and electrical safety, fire risk assessments, asbestos and water safety — across the homes it manages. These are the duties the 2022 regulatory notice concerned.^[2]

Greenwich's own published repair timescales. The council sorts repairs by priority and publishes target times — the disrepair page lists them.^[14]

Complaints. Greenwich Council handles tenants' complaints through its own process, aligned to the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code.^[17] The disrepair page gives the council's repairs numbers and how to complain about a repair.