Four social housing providers have received a slap on the wrist for failures, much to the frustration of Phil Turtle of Landlord Licensing & Defence.
Judgements published by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) for Brighton and Hove City Council, London Borough of Hackney, South Derbyshire District Council, and Ashford Borough Council – unearthed issues including fire safety problems, damp and mould and overdue electrical checks.
However the regulator said: “We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as Brighton and Hove CC seeks to resolve these issues.”
All four received a C3 grading, indicating severe shortcomings and a need for significant improvement.
Turtle said: “Yet again councils get let off with a slapped wrist for housing failures for which the very same council would fine a private landlord out of existence.
“Fines for not having an EICR are up to £30,000 and it’s up to £30,000 for inadequate fire alarms/precautions and another up to £30,000 for damp and mould.”
RSH investigations unveiled the following issues:
- Brighton and Hove City Council failed to ensure electrical safety for around 3,600 homes, lacked fire safety measures in 1,700 properties, and had a repair backlog of 8,000 cases.
- London Borough of Hackney’s failings included more than 15,000 homes without valid electrical safety certificates, nearly 9,000 without smoke detectors, and more than 400 without carbon monoxide detectors. The council also reported more than 1,400 damp and mould cases.
- South Derbyshire District Council fell short on fire risk assessments, electrical safety and had more than 100 homes needing repairs due to unsatisfactory certificates.
- Ashford Borough Council displayed severe health and safety lapses, including overdue electrical checks, incomplete fire safety measures, and missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in some of its 4,800 homes.
Turtle added: “If this was a private portfolio landlord where ‘professional’ means they would get the highest possible fines, because ‘they should know better’ – they would be looking at the best part of £100,000 in fines per property.
“But the same councils that inflict these fines (which they keep for their own revenue budget) just get a slapped wrist and time to leave the tenants in mortal danger until they feel like getting around to the repairs and upgrades.
“It’s at best immoral. Some may say completely corrupt.”
