The housing regulator has highlighted “serious failings” by Brent Council in ensuring the health and safety of its tenants, including fire risk cases that had been closed despite not being completed. The local authority referred itself to the regulators last month after it “identified weaknesses” in how it follows up on completing housing repairs and said it has “let tenants down”.
Earlier this month (May), the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) carried out a review focusing on the safety and quality standard of Brent Council as a landlord, following a self-referral in April concerning the “quality and accuracy” of its fire safety data. The law requires it to have up to date evidence of the condition of the homes under its management, as well as necessary works to be carried out “within appropriate timescales”.
Brent Council owns around 8,800 homes across London, most of which are under its direct management, alongside an additional 4,000 leasehold homes in blocks it owns. The local authority was given a C3 grading by the regulator, meaning “serious failings” that had “negatively affected service outcomes” for tenants were identified and “significant improvement” is needed.
Within the last year, around 12,500 actions arising from fire risk assessments had been closed by the council. However, it referred itself to the regulator after a spot check revealed that despite a case being closed “evidence of the completion of the actions was not available in all instances and some actions had not been completed at all”. Most of these were deemed to be of a high and medium risk and are now being treated as “overdue”.
The subsequent review by the RSH has revealed that the data for fire safety, smoke and carbon monoxide safety, asbestos management, and water safety “cannot be reconciled” and the council “is not able to determine which legally required checks and assessments have been completed”.
It also found that, despite the council reporting that it has condition data on 95 per cent of its housing stock, in fact almost half of its homes “have not had a recorded survey”. Therefore, the RSH said it “is unclear” how Brent Council is assured of the condition of its stock.
The council “has plans in place” to understand the impact of its current position, according to the RSH judgement. These include working to understand the root causes of the problems, reviewing the completion of all closed fire safety actions, and working to develop a suitable action plan to resolve the issues.
The RSH judgement added: “We will continue to engage with [Brent Council] as it seeks to address the issues that have led to this judgement. This includes evidencing that it is taking reasonable steps to mitigate risks to tenants as it creates and delivers its improvement plan. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as [Brent Council] seeks to resolve these issues.”
Cabinet Member for Housing and Resident Services, Cllr Fleur Donnelly-Jackson, said the council is “determined to improve the quality” of its homes and claimed it has “made real progress in recent months” – including the launch of a new damp and mould squad and ‘action days’ to carry out repairs on council estates – but acknowledged that there is “still much more to do”.
She added: “We take our responsibilities as a landlord very seriously and the council accepts that we have let tenants down in the areas outlined by the regulator and for this we apologise unreservedly. In this instance, we have fallen short of our responsibilities as a landlord and failed to meet the expectations of our tenants.
“We will continue to work proactively, positively and in an open and transparent way with our residents and with the regulator to fix the issues identified. Council tenants are at the heart of this improvement work through the new Housing Management Advisory Board. By listening to their experiences and ideas, we can make better decisions and build a housing service that residents can trust.”
Grant Williams is a journalist and Local Democracy Reporter (LDR) for Reach PLC, reporting on local government, politics and community issues across London. As part of the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he has contributed to Harrow Online, covering council decisions, housing developments, transport, planning matters and stories affecting local communities across Harrow and Brent.
