Two more local authorities found by regulator to have breached Home Standard
Newark and Sherwood District Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council have become the latest in a line of local authorities found to have breached statutory health and safety requirements by the Regulator of Social Housing.
The regulator handed regulatory notices to both councils for breaching the Home Standard, meaning there was "potential for serious detriment to tenants".
The Home Standard requires registered providers to have a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service and to meet all applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of tenants in their homes.
The regulator concluded that Greater Yarmouth failed to meet statutory requirements for fire, gas, electrical, asbestos and water safety.
Its investigation into Newark and Sherwood District Council revealed that the local authority had failed to complete hundreds of gas safety checks.
Both councils referred themselves to the regulator and have now put in place programmes to rectify the issues exposed.
Angela Holden, Assistant Director of Consumer Regulation at RSH, welcomed the councils' self-referrals and said she expects them to correct the breaches.
Last month (28 September), the regulator issued a regulatory notice for The London Borough of Redbridge following a breach of its consumer standards concerning fire, electrical, asbestos and water safety issues.
It also found The Royal Borough of Greenwich in breach of the Home Standard in September for not completing electrical safety checks and overdue remedial actions from fire risk assessments.
In May, the London Borough of Ealing was hit with a regulatory notice for not complying with statutory health and safety requirements for fire, gas, electrical, asbestos and water safety.
Nine social housing providers have been handed regulatory notices for consumer standards so far this year, six of which are local authorities.
Commenting on the regulatory notice, Carl Smith, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said: "We take the maintenance of our housing stock and the safety of our tenants and leaseholders extremely seriously. We also always aim to be upfront and transparent about any problems we discover. That's why we voluntarily reported these issues – and our action plan to fix them – to the RSH in August."
A spokesperson for Newark and Sherwood District Council said the local authority had identified almost 800 properties that did not having an up-to-date gas safety certificate.
“With the safety and wellbeing of our tenants our priority, we took immediate action and wrote to all affected tenants apologising for this, providing advice on how to report any issues or concerns with their heating and to ask for their help by being available for their gas safety check appointment”, the council said.
“We increased our resources to respond to the number of gas safety checks needed so these homes could be serviced as soon as possible. In addition, we also began a review of our processes to identify how this issue occurred to ensure that appropriate measures were implemented so this situation does not happen again.”
Adam Carey
