Regulator finds 23,000 Birmingham City Council social homes do not meet Decent Homes Standard

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has found that Birmingham City Council breached its consumer standards, putting “thousands of council tenants at potential risk of serious harm”.

In a regulatory notice published today (24 May), the RSH said the council had not completed fire, electrical and asbestos checks and inspections for every property that needed one, and that a “significant proportion” (23,000) of its properties do not meet the Decent Homes Standard (DHS).

The regulator revealed that it found “a range of serious health and safety issues across thousands of homes”, including almost 17,000 overdue asbestos surveys, around 15,500 late electrical safety inspections and more than 1,000 fire risk assessments that were overdue, mainly for low-rise housing blocks.

The regulator also identified “significant failures” in the way the council handles its tenants’ complaints, with more than 1,000 overdue responses.

The investigation follows earlier external reviews which found that the council’s engagement with tenants was “ineffective”, and that it “did not understand or value tenants’ needs”, said the regulator.

Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation at RSH, said: “Birmingham City Council has failed thousands of tenants and it needs to act now to put things right. It is unacceptable that so many of its tenants are living in non-decent homes, and that thousands of health and safety surveys haven’t been completed. The council also needs to improve the way it handles its tenants’ complaints.

“We will continue to monitor the council’s progress while it fixes the problems we found through our investigation.”

The regulator has called on the council to take “urgent action” to address the failings and “return to compliance with its standards”.

Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council, Deborah Cadman and Strategic Director for City Housing, Paul Langford said in a joint statement: “As a council, we take the safety of our tenants very seriously and understand that the way in which these areas have been managed do not meet the standards expected by our tenants.

“We are determined to address these issues quickly and have already developed a robust action plan to monitor and track improvements in an efficient way.

“We have committed to the Regulator of Social Housing, who have acknowledged the work already taking place to respond, that we will continue to work closely with them to quickly resolve these matters. We will continue to provide assurance to the Regulator through ongoing monitoring arrangements, which we are eager to establish."

The statement added: “All citizens deserve to live in homes that are safe and should have confidence that they will be listened to when they raise a concern or complaint.

“We are very sorry that the council has failed to deliver the quality of service that tenants expect within their home and we understand that the statement issued by the Regulator of Social Housing may have made some tenants feel distressed or worried.

“We want to reassure all our tenants that acting quickly to improve the quality of service in these areas is our top priority. As part of our response to this challenge, in recent months we have put in place a new senior leadership team with the City Housing Directorate. The team have begun to act and put plans in place to address the areas of concern to improve services to our tenants."

Any tenants who want to contact the council for support or reassurance can do so on 0121 216 3330 and an advisor will be available to discuss it, the statement said.

Lottie Winson