Repairing Trust in Social Housing: Reflections on the Housing Ombudsman’s Latest Report

By Luke Beard · 29 May 2025

Luke Beard Reflects on the Housing Ombudsman’s Repairing Trust Report

The Housing Ombudsman’s latest Repairing Trust report makes for challenging reading. While the headline figure a 474% rise in repair complaints since 2019 is striking, I find myself questioning what this surge really tells us about the state of social housing today.

Is this purely evidence of deteriorating service standards? Or might it reflect something more complex—perhaps even encouraging? Could we be witnessing the impact of stronger regulation finally giving residents a voice that was previously silenced? Are we seeing a rightful shift in expectations, with residents demanding the quality of service they deserve?

These questions matter because while the report exposes significant operational and cultural failings, it also creates an opportunity for deeper reflection on how we listen, respond, and rebuild the trust that lies at the heart of good housing management.

Five Key Reflections

1. Respect and Empathy Must Be Non-Negotiable

Too many residents continue to feel dismissed or dehumanised in their interactions with housing providers. We must move beyond transactional relationships toward an approach rooted in dignity and genuine care. The question we should be asking ourselves is: how do we ensure empathy isn’t just a stated value, but a lived reality in every resident interaction?

2. Repairs Represent More Than Maintenance – They’re About Trust 

When repairs are delayed, poorly executed, or handled dismissively, we chip away at residents’ fundamental sense of safety and belonging in their homes. Perhaps we need to expand how we measure success, not just through response times and completion rates, but by how safe and heard our residents feel throughout the process.

3. We Need to Evolve the Culture, Not Just the Processes

The report’s recommendation for a Code of Conduct is important, but lasting change requires more than new policies. It demands a fundamental shift in how values are embodied daily through leadership behaviours, team interactions, and our approach to every resident conversation. The challenge is making cultural transformation feel achievable rather than overwhelming for teams at every level.

4. Listening Must Become Habitual, Not a Formality 

Residents possess unparalleled knowledge about their homes and communities. Rather than simply responding to complaints, we need to create meaningful opportunities for their voices to actively shape our services. This means developing robust mechanisms for proactive listening and demonstrating that we act on what we hear.

5. Aligning Human Insight with Data Intelligence

The report rightly highlights the potential of predictive maintenance and data-driven decision making. However, many organisations still grapple with fragmented systems and incomplete datasets. This makes resident insight and the knowledge of frontline staff invaluable. Human understanding doesn’t replace data assurance, but it provides essential context, helping us interpret what numbers alone might miss and make more responsive, grounded decisions.

Learning from Healthcare: Shared Challenges, Shared Solutions

The challenges outlined in Repairing Trust aren’t unique to housing. There are striking parallels with healthcare, particularly around rebuilding trust and balancing regulation with compassion:

• Trust as a core outcome: Like the NHS recognising trust as central to patient care, housing providers must view trust not as a welcome by-product, but as a primary objective.
• Voice and co-production: Both sectors are shifting from top-down service delivery toward models where residents and patients actively help shape the services they receive.
• Data and lived experience: Whether predictive maintenance or patient safety metrics, data becomes most powerful when combined with the lived experiences of those we serve.
• Accountability without losing humanity: Stronger oversight has surfaced long-standing issues in both sectors, but the challenge remains: how do we maintain rigorous standards while preserving genuine human connection?

Final Thoughts

This report is a tough read — but a necessary one. It’s a challenge to all of us in the sector to do better, not just in how we fix homes, but in how we rebuild trust.

At ARK, we work with landlords to design and deliver quality repairs and maintenance services that put residents first. If you’d like to explore how we can support your specific needs, please get in touch here.