Industry News


South London council breaches the Home Standard


fire and gas safety which potentially exposed a significant number of tenants to the risk of serious harm. The social housing regulator said the council,


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which owns and manages around 22,500 homes, did not have an effective system in place to allow it to manage the risk of tenant safety and meet its statutory health and safety responsibilities across a range of areas. Historic information showed an overall


weak position in terms of landlord health and safety compliance. The regulator noted significant changes had recently taken place at Lambeth with a change in senior leadership, a restructure of the compliance function and increased resources. Its judgement said: “There is evidence of an increased pace in the work being delivered to


ambeth Council has been found to have breached the Home Standard over a series of longstanding failings with regard to asbestos,


address the issues although there is still work to do, particularly on implementing a robust system to deliver, monitor and oversee the management of health and safety compliance. “Taking into account the breadth and scale of the


failure with particular regard to fire, asbestos and gas safety, and the longstanding nature of the issues, the Regulator has determined that it is proportionate to find a breach of the Home standard in this case.” The regulator said over a number of years there


were a significant number of overdue remedial actions arising from Fire Risk Assessments, including some considered ‘intolerable’ or ‘substantial’. For asbestos, over 180 surveys of communal areas had not been carried out. These included high and medium risk properties. Asbestos surveys for some of these properties had been outstanding for a number of years. For gas safety, the regulator found that over 40 properties were without valid safety certificates for


up to 24 months. It said the council have made significant improvements in ensuring all properties have a valid gas safety certificate and the other failings in fire risk assessments and asbestos surveys had also been addressed. This case follows a similar finding against


Runnymede Borough Council in Surrey, which was also found to have caused a risk of serious detriment to its tenants because of breaches over fire and electrical safety. The regulator said the council failed to complete


urgent or high priority action arising from fire risk assessments at two properties, a 17-storey tower block and a sheltered housing scheme. The fire safety remedial work needed at the tower block was identified in two successive fire risk assessments last year, while at the sheltered housing property, the action was identified in a fire risk assessment done in 2017. On the electrical breaches, the regulator said the


council had no evidence of when testing was last carried out for 162 properties. In addition, the council’s records showed the electrics in 794 properties were not tested in the past 10 years. The regulator concluded that Runnymede


Council did not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its statutory health & safety responsibilities in fire and electrical safety. It also found the council could not provide evidence of how many of its properties met the Decent Homes Standard.


Biggest council landlord warns of possible repair cutbacks


The country’s biggest local authority landlord has warned that an estimated £93 million bill for fire safety works will force it to cut spending on repairs and maintenance work to its housing stock. Birmingham City Council owns around 62,000 homes, including 213 high-rise tower blocks.


None of them are covered in Grenfell-style ACM cladding. But as a result of the Hackitt Review and the


publication of Advice Note 14, the council said it is potentially looking at spending huge sums on a variety of fire safety measures, including £31m on water sprinklers, £28m on replacement balcony and


window infill sections and £34m on fire doors. Repeated requests have been made by the council


to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and the Treasury asking for money to help with the cost of fire safety works, but to date Ministers had failed to respond positively. “We simply cannot afford to continue to put in


place adequate safety measures and maintain current levels of necessary repairs,” said Sharon Thompson, the city’s cabinet member for homes and neighbourhoods. “We need support from Government,” she added.


www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM December/January 2020 | 17


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