Peabody Trust: ITV London investigates one of the capital's largest housing association

ITV London reporter, Kaf Okpattah, has been speaking to the families of victims.

One of London's oldest, and largest, housing associations has been given more prevention of future death orders than any other in the capital, an investigation by ITV London has found.

Peabody Housing was founded in 1862 and according to their website, currently oversees 108,000 homes and 220,000 residents.

In the last four years, the housing body has had three prevention of future death reports.

A prevention of future death report provides coroners with the duty to make reports to a person, organisation, local authority or government department or agency where the coroner believes that action should be taken to prevent future deaths.

One of those was after the death of five year old Malika Hibu.

Malika fell into a canal and drowned in February 2024. She opened the door of her home at Crest Buildings, Wharf Road and ran towards the canal before she fell in. She was found 25 minutes later, and was pronounced dead at St. Thomas' hospital.

An inquest into her death found that Peabody had failed to act on complaints that the nearby barrier wasn't safe, they had not carried out a risk assessment of the land and had not realised that land belonged to them.

Her dad, Mohammed Hibu, says he believes Peabody are "one hundred per cent" to blame for Malika's death.

He said: "They totally ignored people's warnings, so as a result, I paid my beloved daughter. She fell down here, she passed away.

"This is Peabody's land, Peabody's estate....when they built the estate they didn't assess [the] risk."

However, Peabody have responded to Mr Hibu's allegations.

Ian McDermott, Chief Executive of Peabody, said: “Malika’s death was a tragic accident and heartbreaking for the community.

"Our thoughts remain with the Hibu family who have endured a terrible loss.

"The coroner’s report into what happened is wide-ranging and potentially raises serious questions about the safety of families across the country who live near water and other hazards. It also raises questions about the responsibility of landlords when it comes to personal safety.

“As part of our original planning consent, we were not allowed to have any kind of barrier to the canal.

"However, we have listened to the local community and met with them regularly over the past few months. Based on these conversations we are submitting plans for a fence at the edge of the estate to the council for its consideration."

Another resident who died following issues with Peabody Housing, Elizabeth Pamment.

In 2016, Elizabeth was moved two streets away from her daughter, Tina, into a warden assisted block. Tina told Peabody to tell support stuff to let her know if anything happened to her mother.

Tina described the housing as only "five minutes away" which was important as her mother's health was deteriorating.

In August 2020, Elizabeth suffered a fall. Support staff helped her back to her feet but they did not contact Tina.

Later that day, she fell again and was laying on the floor for hours. She later died in hospital from pneumonia.

"I do believe if Peabody contacted me after that first fall, she would still be alive," said Tina.

"I would have stayed with her or brought her back over here and she wouldn't have been left alone if she was in a distressed state so yeah, I do believe she would have been alive."

Peabody hadn't kept records of Tina's instructions to them, nor had they passed it on to Elizabeth's support workers.

Following Elizabeth's death, the coroner did not say whether contacting Tina would have save Mrs. Pamment's life but did clarify it would have significantly improved her physical and emotional comfort.

"The night that she fell as the first time she called for assistance and we now know they did not call me," added Tina.

The coroner's report from all of these incidents found, "serious concerns with Peabody's processes", "issues of not carrying our risk assessments", "support workers not being given first aid training" and "important records of vulnerable residents not being kept".

In response, Peabody have said: “We have received three prevention of future death reports over the last four years. We reviewed the recommendations on a case-by-case basis, including after the very sad death of Mrs. Pamment. Where possible we’ve acted on these and made improvements to our processes or services.”

The Housing Ombudsman added: "Coroner's reports can be extremely important.

"In the right case in the appropriate case, a good report, a well focused report will really lead to hopefully some action, good action that will save lives in the future."

A whistleblower who used to work at Peabody also spoke to ITV London.

He said: "I wanted to speak to you because the truth needs to be told and I've witnessed a lot of things working as a housing support worker that cannot be ignored.

"We had quite a lot of tenants coming down and complaining about the same issue.

"The people do eventually come and do it but it takes too long, it's not quite resolved, the issues still ongoing, we do the same process again, and it's a backlog, and if it's a backlog it takes ages."

He also described an emergency event that required repairs within 24 hours but they didn't happen. He says they took two or three days.

"I've voiced these concerns, but it just didn't get heard," he said.

Peabody said: “As a not-for-profit housing provider our priority is making sure residents’ homes are safe and well looked after. We provide more than 100,000 homes across 140 neighbourhoods and are growing our local teams to provide better services and support for residents. We’re investing in technology and in residents’ homes, putting in more local repairs teams and listening and learning lessons when things do wrong.”

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...