Four social landlords fail to meet regulator’s standards – London Wallet

Brighton and Hove City Council, the London Borough of Hackney, South Derbyshire District Council and Ashford Borough Council have each failed to meet new consumer standards for social housing landlords, introduced on 1 April 2024 by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

All four have been given a C3 grading by RSH, which means there are serious failings and they need to make significant improvements.

Following investigations into each landlord, RSH found that Brighton and Hove CC:

• Failed to ensure that it is meeting electrical safety requirements, with around 3,600 homes not having a current electrical condition report (out of 12,100 total homes).
• Also reported over 500 overdue water safety remedial actions, and more than 600 homes without a water risk assessment. The council also identified 1,700 medium and low-risk fire remedial actions, as well as a backlog of around 8,000 low risk repairs.

The London Borough of Hackney:

• Has over 15,000 homes without a current electrical safety certificate (out of 21,500 total homes). There was also no evidence of smoke detectors being fitted in almost 9,000 homes, or carbon monoxide detectors in over 400 homes.
• The council has 400 homes that have not received a gas safety inspection within the required timeframe. It also reported more than 1,400 open damp and mould cases in tenants’ homes.

For South Derbyshire District Council:

• Fewer than half of the homes requiring a fire risk assessment have one in place. Moreover, a number of homes did not have a valid electrical safety certificate, and more than 100 homes required further works due to unsatisfactory certificates.
• The council also failed to demonstrate a sufficient understanding of its tenants’ homes and RSH could not be assured that it is providing homes of decent quality. The council owns 2,935 social homes in total.

Ashford Borough Council:

• Has serious failings in how it is meeting health and safety requirements. This includes overdue electrical safety checks, incomplete fire remedial actions and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that have not been installed in some of its 4,800 homes.
• The council also reported that it has not carried out a full stock condition survey for over 10 years. RSH’s investigation found that complaints are not being recorded consistently and tenants have lacked opportunities to influence decision making about how their services are provided.

Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at RSH, said: “Landlords must provide safe and decent homes for tenants by taking a proactive approach to delivering the outcomes of our standards. Making sure tenants’ homes are safe and keeping up-to-date data is key to meeting these objectives, as is ensuring there are effective approaches to handling complaints and engaging with tenants.

“The issues outlined in the judgements need to be addressed promptly and we are working intensively with each of the landlords as they put things right for their tenants.”

Separately, RSH is carrying out planned inspections of all large social landlords (those with over 1,000 homes) over a four-year cycle. RSH has started to publish the outcomes of these first inspections and will continue to do so over the coming months.