Shame of the fat cat landlords: Ahead of a landmark law forcing housing

Fat cat social housing bosses have raked in huge salaries and bonuses despite their tenants continuing to live in mouldy and badly-maintained homes, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Five of the biggest social landlords – all of which receive tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash – are paying their bosses salaries several times higher than what the Prime Minister earns.

The same firms were forced to hand out £1.5 million in compensation to tenants last year after 1,500 complaints of ‘maladministration’ were upheld by the housing watchdog, many linked to repeated failures to deal with the upkeep of properties housing Britain’s most vulnerable people.

The controversy comes a week before the introduction of a new law following the death of toddler Awaab Ishak, who suffered a fatal respiratory illness after living in a mouldy flat five years ago.

From October 27, social landlords will be required to fix reported damp and mould within strict, legally-binding timeframes.

It comes a week before the introduction of a new law following the death of toddler Awaab Ishak, who suffered a fatal respiratory illness after living in a mouldy flat five years ago

The housing firms are keen to emphasise ‘social responsibility’, claiming most of their profits are ploughed back into the business. But that ethos has not prevented them from paying executives bonuses of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Bosses at one firm, Places for People, which manages or owns 262,000 homes including 70,000 social-rented properties, received £263,000 in bonuses last year, according to its annual report last month.

The windfall was split between chief executive Greg Reed, chief operating officer Scott Black and finance chief Andy Winstanley, and was on top of their basic salaries collectively worth £1.1 million.

The payout came in the year the Housing Ombudsman found 120 failings at Places for People, including 51 for property condition and 40 for complaint-handling, with 89 findings of maladministration, forcing the company to pay out £57,500 in compensation.

Over the past five years, Places for People’s bosses have received bonuses totalling nearly £1.8 million – with US-born former banker Reed receiving £465,000 in the four years since his appointment.

His basic salary rose 2.7 per cent to £457,000 last year, in line with a rent rise across the social housing sector, topped up by a £108,000 bonus and £9,000 in benefits, netting him more than three times what the Prime Minister earns.

Reed, 55, was UK head of home repair business HomeServe from 2017 to 2020, after spending more than 20 years in banking, including two years as head of credit cards and overdrafts at RBS from 2010 to 2012, soon after it was bailed out in the banking crisis.

Reed lives in a sought-after Edinburgh suburb and social media shows him and his wife on holiday at a mountain holiday resort. In Places for People’s annual report, Reed declared it existed as ‘a force for good’ while reporting a £215 million profit. It also received nearly £19 million of taxpayer cash from quango Homes England to build new social housing.

The bumper profit came despite the Housing Ombudsman saying the percentage of complaints leading to ‘maladministration’ findings against the company last year was 62 per cent. The previous year it was as high as 84 per cent.

Across the sector, this year’s maladministration findings average 69 per cent for landlords of a similar size to Places for People. But here too big executive pay rises have been announced.

Places for People chief executive Greg Reed has received £574,000

L&Q Group chief executive Fiona Fletcher-Smith received a package totalling £388,000

Clarion handed its boss Clare Miller an 8.5 per cent pay rise taking her to £471,000 a year

Clarion, Britain’s largest social landlord, which lets 125,000 homes and received £109 million in grant funding last year for affordable housing, handed its boss Clare Miller an 8.5 per cent pay rise taking her to £471,000 a year. This included a £52,000 bonus.

Miller, 62, is an accountant who lives with her husband in a £1 million Islington flat. Her pay award came despite 413 findings of maladministration against the firm by the Ombudsman leading to £253,000 in compensation payouts.

Other big social housing providers to reveal pay rises last year include Peabody Trust. It manages 109,000 homes in and around London, and its boss Ian McDermott saw his pay rise from £375,000 to £388,000, while 356 complaints of maladministration against it were upheld, resulting in £251,000 in compensation being paid.

McDermott, 62, who lives with his wife in a £1.5 million five-bedroom house in Twickenham, South-West London, can be seen on social media enjoying ski…