Housing ombudsman for England warns of ‘simmering anger’ over living conditions

Richard Blakeway called the quality of social housing in England ‘completely inadequate in the 21st century’. Photograph: Michael Kemp/Alamy

The housing ombudsman has warned “simmering anger at poor housing conditions” could boil over into social tension as his office recorded a 474% increase in complaints about substandard living conditions since 2019/20.

Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman for England, said repairs were now the single biggest driver of complaints his office deals with, accounting for 45% of its workload.