THE Town Hall has been fined tens of thousands of pounds after an investigation found council tenants were left waiting months for basic repairs, among other problems.

The Housing Ombudsman released a special investigation into the state of the borough’s council-owned housing stock this week.

The report found the council was “reactive rather than proactive” when dealing with complaints, which “contributes to problems drifting and persisting.” The report also found the council had a “disjointed” approach to dealing with issues raised or complaints made by residents.

The ombudsman ordered the council to apologise and pay a total of £66,441 to residents for their treatment over an 18-month period.

In one instance highlighted in the report, a woman with mental health problems was stuck without a working key fob to her building for 10 months – a problem, the ombudsman noted, “that should have been resolved within 24 hours”.

In every case that was investigated, the ombudsman found evidence the council had made administrative failings. The Town Hall must now work to resolve disrepair and anti-social behaviour on its estates, and improve its complaint-handling process.

In a statement responding to the report, Islington Council said: “We’ve committed to delivering a number of improvements in an extremely challenging environment of long-term underinvestment in social housing, the challenges our residents face with the cost-of-living crisis, and a severe shortage of affordable housing in one of London’s densest boroughs.”