Midlands council self refers to Regulator of Social Housing over safety checks in homes

Dudley Council has referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing after data on safety checks in its homes was found to be missing.

Balvinder Heran, deputy chief executive, said: “Dudley Council is currently liaising with the Regulator of Social Housing over some recently identified data quality concerns.”

The council declined to elaborate on this but the Halesowen News has reported that senior officers could not confirm whether each property has a complete record and council homes therefore may not have gas safety certificates.

A report this month for the council’s audit and standards committee rated a ‘very high’ risk for “Failure to meet and evidence statutory building safety and compliance responsibilities”.

It said this arose from an “inadequate building safety framework, associated policies and procedures, and data quality and monitoring arrangements in place”.

The consequence were described as an “Inability to evidence and provide assurance of compliance with legal and regulatory standards.

“Likelihood that significant opportunities to ensure our homes are warm and efficient have been missed.”

The report admitted the position had worsened since last reviewed.

Mark Smulian