By Josef Steen

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An east London council paid out more than half a million pounds in compensation to residents last year amid a record number of complaints.

In an annual report shared at a scrutiny meeting on Monday, Hackney Council revealed its total complaints over services had doubled since the Covid-19 pandemic – particularly around housing.

Since January 2021, the number of Stage 1 complaints to the housing service nearly trebled to more than 3,000 by January 2025.

Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley assured members the council was investing more money in the borough’s housing stock to stem the steep increase – including by replacing hundreds of faulty lifts across its estates. “There’s barely a ward where there hasn’t been issues around lift repairs. Once that program kicks in, you’re going to see less complaints,” she said.

Hackney’s assistant director for business intelligence, elections and member services, Bruce Devile, added that while complaint levels had “probably peaked” it would take time to see a fall.

Councillors were anxious to hear what officers was planning to do about the “astonishing” £572,000 compensation bill. Councillor Ben Lucas said: “That is money that could go into residents’ services.”

His Labour colleague Councillor Sophie Conway, who herself lives in a social housing flat, added: “If you’re spending £20,000 unblocking drains, is there something you can do that prevents you paying as much?”

Ms Conway said her block was “plagued by the same issues” fuelling thousands of resident complaints, including having gone two months with no hot water. She argued that it was even costlier for the council to be paying sub-contractors to come to people’s homes, only to keep returning because they weren’t able to finish the works.

Money paid out to social housing residents is taken from the borough’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA). The council has warned of its HRA’s “precarious” financial position, having overspent by £17 million in 2024/25. Mr Devile said the compensation bill would be reduced in years to come as the impact of more investment in housing began to be felt.

However, the same report noted that the council risked further reputational and financial damage if it did not hasten its processing of complaints, with about 9 in 10 (89%) for its “housing transformation” services currently overdue.

In a separate letter, the local government and social care watchdog said she was “disappointed” to see the council had delayed putting her recommendations into practice three years in a row.

In July, Hackney Council announced its new Housing Improvement Plan to improve its internal processes around complaint-handling, maintenance and repairs. Prior to Monday’s scrutiny meeting, the Town Hall had approved a £180 million contract for housing works over the next four years.

This came following a damning report by the social housing watchdog, who deemed Hackney an “outlier” compared to other boroughs and said its misplaced positivity had led to “multiple missed opportunities” to address fundamental failures.

The council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the level of complaints received was in line with other local authorities.