Social housing providers have been advised to give the recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 report “careful consideration and take appropriate action accordingly”.

However, the report, published today, stopped short of calling for changes to the way the social housing sector is run, insisting that the Social Housing (Regulation) Act “enables the Regulator of Social Housing to play a more active role in setting appropriate standards and ensuring that they are met”.

In its executive summary, the report states: “In Parts 4 and 5 of the report we have discussed the Tenant Management Organisation (TMO), its relationship with its residents and its management of fire safety at Grenfell Tower.

“We make a number of criticisms of the way in which it carried out its responsibilities, including in relation to handling complaints, remedying defects identified in fire risk assessments, installing and maintaining fire protection systems and routine inspection and maintenance of fire doors.

“Others responsible for the management of social housing should give them careful consideration and take appropriate action accordingly.”

It continues: “In other circumstances shortcomings of those kinds would probably have led us to make a number of recommendations directed to ensuring that they were rectified and not repeated.

“However, since the fire Parliament has enacted the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, which enables the Regulator of Social Housing to play a more active role in setting appropriate standards and ensuring that they are met.

“The regulator also has the power to set standards on the competence and conduct of those involved in the provision of services relating to the management of social housing and to require providers of social housing to make information available both to tenants and the regulator.

“The Act also makes safety a priority and imposes a duty on landlords to investigate and remedy within a specified time of being reported defects that may adversely affect health.

“In those circumstances, we do not consider it necessary to make any additional recommendations in relation to the matters that we have uncovered.”

Responding to the report’s findings, Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive at the Regulator of Social Housing, said: “The Grenfell Tower fire was a profound tragedy and our thoughts remain with the victims and survivors, their families, and the local community.

“We welcome the Inquiry’s final report, and it is vital that all social housing landlords read and learn from the findings that apply to them.

“The lessons from the tragedy remain as important today as they were seven years ago. Landlords must ensure tenants are safe in their homes. They must listen to tenants, take their complaints seriously, and treat them with fairness and respect.

“The Social Housing Regulation Act, introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower fire, gives RSH new powers to inspect landlords to make sure they are delivering the outcomes of our revised consumer standards. We will continue with our programme of planned inspections and responsive work and publish gradings for landlords based on our findings.”

Commenting on X about the lack of new recommendations for social housing providers, housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa, said: “I hope the government will go further regardless. I see daily people’s health and safety continuing to be put at risk, fire safety being avoided and social housing tenants subject to conditions not fit for anyone to live in. Even with the change in regulation.”

According to the report, the breakdown in trust between the TMO and Grenfell residents became a barrier to communication and engagement between the landlord and the community it served. It adds that the TMO “lost sight of the fact that the residents were people who depended on it for a safe and decent home and the privacy and dignity that a home should provide”.

“That dependence created an unequal relationship and a corresponding need for the TMO to ensure that, whatever the difficulties, the residents were treated with understanding and respect. We regret to say the TMO failed to recognise that need and therefore failed to take the steps necessary to ensure that it was met,” the report concluded.

“Some, perhaps many, occupants of Grenfell Tower regarded the TMO as an uncaring and bullying overlord, which belittled and marginalised them, regarded them as a nuisance or worse, and simply failed to take their concerns seriously. For its part, the TMO regarded some of the residents as militant troublemakers led on by a handful of vocal activists…The result was a toxic atmosphere fuelled by mistrust on both sides,” it said.

“In the end, however, responsibility for the maintenance of the relationship between the TMO and the Grenfell community fell not on the members of that community, who had a right to be treated with respect, but on the TMO as a public body exercising control over the building which contained their homes.”

It added: “However irritating and inconvenient it may at times have found the complaints and demands of some of the residents of Grenfell Tower, for the TMO to have allowed the relationship to deteriorate to such an extent reflects a serious failure on its part to observe its basic responsibilities.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said “respect and trust” were integral to the findings of the report and that it was clear residents’ complaints were “dismissed and devalued”.

“This report will have huge significance for the way housing operates in the future. But it must also act as a moment of reflection for the whole country,” he said.

“The survivors and bereaved families who provided such vital evidence throughout the Inquiry should be commended; their voices are clearly heard in this report which is testament to how it has been produced. Everyone at our service is tirelessly committed to fulfilling our role under the Social Housing Regulation Act to deliver change.

“Integral to these findings are respect and trust – and the principles of transparency and accountability. It is clear residents’ complaints were dismissed and devalued.

“Whilst there are technical failings detailed in the report, the gross imbalance of power and dismissal of residents is striking. These are some of the issues we still encounter in our investigations and highlighted in our recent systemic report on attitudes, respect and rights. It identified the need for human-centric provision of services by landlords.

“There is a wider societal change that needs to take place towards those living in social housing, stopping the stigma towards this important tenure. This starts with the investment needed so that landlords can deliver services that meet residents’ needs and are able maintain social homes in a way that is responsible and ensures decency.

“Our work with thousands of residents and landlords has reinforced how the role of a landlord has changed – providing a one size fits all approach to housing and repairs is no longer viable.

“This is evident from the inquiry’s conclusions, with the landlord not fully understanding the needs of the residents they were serving. I see these themes repeatedly in our casework, and remind landlords that complaints hold a mirror up to the quality of service provision and culture of their organisation. Complaints provide landlords with early warning of issues that may be unaddressed, and tackling these can improve relationships and trust between landlord and resident.

“Landlords should rigorously review the complaints they receive to drive learning and create a positive complaint handling culture. Landlords should also ensure they are listening and involving residents in their decision making processes, which was devastatingly absent here.”