Oxford City Council pays out more than £75,000 to tenants over housing complaints
Compensation has more than doubled on the previous year after failings as a landlord
Last updated 11th Sep 2026
Oxford City Council paid out over £75,000 in housing complaints in 2025-26, more than double the compensation paid the previous year.
A report reveals that the Housing Ombudsman ordered the council to pay £76,908.29 over complaints about its services as a landlord during the last financial year, compared with £36,005.50 in 2024/25.
This compensation to its tenants followed “delays in complaint handling”, with findings of “service failure” and “maladministration” by the council, according to the report.
Communication, repairs, damp, mould, requests for rehousing and concerns about new build properties were issues repeatedly raised in the hundreds of complaints made.
Less than a third of people who responded to a tenant survey, having previously made a complaint, were satisfied with the handling of it.
The council report said it has had a decrease in the most quickly solved complaints, but an increase in internal complaints and those which required escalation.
The report blamed this on “clearance of historic complaint backlogs, increased awareness amongst residents and staff of escalation rights and dissatisfaction arising from delays in complaint responses” as “contributing factors”.
The report said the “financial impact of these payments has been managed within the Housing Revenue Account budget”.
A £3.5 million hole in that account had been discussed at a ‘special council’ meeting earlier this month.
City finance cabinet member Ed Turner blamed the shortfall on a miscalculation about how much income the council would receive this year from housing rent.
The councillor conceded that the perception of the multi-million-pound hole is “substantial”, but added: “The good news is that we absolutely do have the reserves to cover it off this year.”
The report on the housing complaints focussed purely on the council as a landlord, and did not include its homelessness services through which additional ombudsman orders were made.
This includes a £4,135 compensation payment to a woman, anonymised by the ombudsman as Ms X, who was housed with her child at a bed and breakfast for over half a year.
She had reported that “the Council housed her and her child for too long in unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation when she was homeless, delayed making a main housing duty decision and placed her on the wrong accommodation waiting list” and “because of the Council’s faults, she lived in unsuitable accommodation for longer than necessary and has been caused uncertainty and frustration”.
This situation was described as an “injustice” in the ombudsman report and payments for £200 to “recognise the uncertainty caused due to the Council’s error regarding the housing waiting list” and £3,935 to “recognise the injustice caused by Ms X and her child living in unsuitable B&B accommodation for 21 weeks and 6 days weeks longer than they should have” were ordered.