Wandsworth failing to meet health and safety standards in its housing stock, says regulator

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

Serious failures have been found in Wandsworth council’s housing stock, with tenants waiting more than 12 months for fire safety works and left in properties without electrical safety tests.

The local authority said it was taking swift action to address failures to meet health and safety standards identified by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) – a public body that is currently auditing the housing stock of all local authorities.

The regulator said the council needed to make significant improvements to tackle concerns raised in a new report, published on Wednesday, after inspecting its housing stock for the first time in November.

It slapped the council with a ‘C3’ rating for its performance in meeting consumer standards, which is the second lowest possible score.

The council said it was taking ‘swift and decisive action’ to tackle health and safety failures found by inspectors. It added it was broadly meeting the other consumer standards, and would work closely with the regulator over the coming months to improve its rating. It directly manages most of the roughly 17,000 properties it owns.

The report said that while none of the 1,800 outstanding fire safety works were classed as high risk, they were all more than 12 months overdue. The regulator was reassured the council was meeting legal requirements in other areas of health and safety, but said many of the tests for water safety, asbestos management and lift maintenance had been completed only months before.

The inspection revealed nearly 80 per cent of communal areas across the council’s housing stock, and around 40 per cent of properties, had not had an electrical safety test. The authority has improved on this since the inspection, with 75 per cent of communal areas and 70 per cent of homes now tested.

The regulator also said it had seen evidence the council did not have up-to-date information on the condition of most of its homes. It found weaknesses in how well the authority took tenants’ views into account when making decisions.

Inspectors, however, praised the council for dealing effectively with antisocial behaviour, and for matching tenants with suitable accommodation. The regulator said the authority had provided evidence it was addressing complaints fairly, effectively and promptly, but still needed to improve tenants’ satisfaction with complaint handling and response times.

The report added: “Wandsworth has been engaging constructively with us and has put in a place a programme to rectify these failures, including work to complete outstanding health and safety checks and actions, improve its understanding of the condition of its homes, and making improvements to its complaint handling processes.

“We will seek evidence that gives us the assurance that sufficient change and progress is being made, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement programme.”

Responding to the report, the council confirmed it would carry out a full survey of the condition of its housing stock by inspecting 20 per cent of properties annually for the next five years. It added that while 1,800 fire safety works were overdue, it had already completed 38,000 before the inspection.

Labour councillor Aydin Dikerdem, cabinet member for housing, said: “Since we took control of the council over two years ago, we have invested significant new resources into our housing management teams and reforming our tenant participation structures.

“While it is not what we hoped for, this report will help us in targeting where we need to improve and the areas of the new housing regulatory framework we need to adapt to. We look forward to working with the regulator to make this happen.”