Law firm review of housing compliance at council finds reporting of risk “did not reflect reality” of its position
A review by law firm Eversheds Sutherland of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s housing compliance has found risk was not properly reported within the authority.
Eversheds' review was carried out after the council's self-referral to the Regulator for Social Housing in May 2021 over issues that came to light about how property compliance was managed.
The Regulator found the council failed to meet statutory health and safety requirements in relation to fire, water, electrical and asbestos safety, and breached part 1.2 of the Home Standard causing the potential for serious detriment to tenants.
Welwyn Hatfield though put in place a rectification programme and the Regulator decided against taking statutory enforcement action on the basis of an assurance that breaches are being remedied.
Eversheds found: “The council has a plethora of reporting mechanisms, committees and meetings that seek to review and discuss various aspects of its operation.
“Unfortunately, the concerns regarding housing compliance identified in early 2020 were not identified by any of the operational parts of the council.
“They were, therefore, not reported to the corporate management team or the cabinet.”
Personnel changes, the use of different systems to capture property data, and the split of responsibilities between different teams and individuals all added to a lack of clarity.
After an earlier report by auditor BDO in early 2020 “there was an opportunity to reflect, share the findings and seek a resolution that was in the interests of service users.
“Unfortunately, the evidence available during 2020 does not suggest that immediate action was taken. Those that received the BDO report do not appear to have shared its findings widely, and information streams to the corporate management team and cabinet during 2020 do not appear to reflect the reality reported within the document, maintaining the status quo that compliance was being achieved.”
Eversheds said these failings meant “the true state of compliance came as a shock to many in 2021 when the scale was fully understood”.
It was though “confident that the changes made during 2021-22 have put the council in a much stronger position.”
Fiona Thomson, Welwyn Hatfield's executive member, housing and climate change, apologised to tenants and leaseholders and said: “At several points in the Eversheds review, it is made clear that the reporting of risk to the corporate management team and to cabinet did not reflect the reality of our compliance position. These were critical failures and we fully accept them.
“The report also highlights a number of issues relating to the systems we were using, our governance, and management of resources. Our focus since these issues came to light last year has been to implement the changes needed to ensure something like this couldn't happen again, and I am pleased that the report notes the progress made in this respect.”
Mark Smulian
