Council faces criticism for lack of smoke alarms

Ben Beadle, CEO of the NRLA, has slammed Southwark Council for failing to manage their properties after the Regulator of Social Housing found that more than half of the properties lacked smoke alarms.

The council, which owns 36,800 homes, received a C3 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing for “serious failings”.

The news comes after Southwark council called letting agents “predatory and exploitative” for failing to tackle bidding wars in the area.

And another regulator, the Housing Ombudsman, slated a London council for not following its own processes and procedures – and having a “defensive complaints culture”.

Do as I say not as I do

The Regulator of Social Housing reveals that 50% of Southwark Council’s homes have not had an electrical condition test in over five years, and more than half of the homes are without smoke alarms.

There are also more than 2,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions, nearly 100 of which are categorised as high-risk.

The findings also show that 30% of these homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard.

Mr Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), criticised Southwark council for failing to manage its properties.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Beadle said: “Another appalling case of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’

“Having spent last week musing about ‘predatory letting agents’ as being the cause of high rents, perhaps they should mull get their own house in order?

“Or better still, engage a managing agent that would do a far better job than they are doing.”

Defensive complaints culture

The Housing Ombudsman also criticised another London council for a “defensive complaints culture.”

An investigation into Camden Council revealed 57 individual complaints and 124 findings of maladministration, where policies and processes were not followed. One resident, who relies on a service dog and has arthritis, endured lift outages for 686 of the 1,051 days he lived in the block.

Despite this, the council didn’t offer a temporary move, forcing the resident to relocate to a wooden shack without heating or hot water.

In a statement, Camden Council, say they will continue to improve services to residents.

The council said: “Our tenants and leaseholders deserve high-quality, responsive and empathetic services, and we have been investing and working hard to improve the services they receive.

“We will go above and beyond the ambitions set out by the Ombudsman’s recommendations and we will ensure that considerations about our residents are at the centre of our work.

“We have set up a Housing and Property Residents Panel, a Complaints and Oversight Panel, completed a programme of intensive resident engagement, and we will continue to encourage all residents to get involved in the development of our services.

Apologise to tenants who have been let down

Cllr Kieron Williams, the leader of Southwark Council, says the council is making progress on repairs and will install smoke alarms in all its homes by 2026.

Mr Williams said: “I want to apologise to tenants who have been let down. We will continue to drive up the quality of our services and homes for you. Whilst we have made progress we know there is much more to do.

“We will be making sure our action plan delivers the improvements that the regulator has identified. We’re investing over £250 million over the next three years to make our homes safe and decent.

“We’re improving our repairs, complaints and housing allocations services and establishing a new Housing Management Board – with tenants round the table – so you can hold us to account.

“We’ll also be continuing our work with the government and councils across the country to tackle the £2.2 billion black hole in our national council housing finances, so together we can secure the long-term funding settlement needed to fully lift council homes across the country up to modern safe, healthy and green standards.”

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