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Shelter: social housing tenants being failed by poor regulation and repairs services
Tenants of social rented homes are being failed “by poor regulation”, Shelter has said, after a study by the charity found that one in 10 had reported an issue with their home more than 10 times.
The study by YouGov on behalf of Shelter found that more than half (56%) of tenants in social rented properties had reported an issue with their home within the past three years, including electrical hazards, gas leaks and faulty lifts.
Among those who had a problem, one in 10 respondents said they had reported the issue to their landlord more than 10 times. The poll did not state whether the issues were subsequently addressed.
According to Shelter, which worked with Grenfell survivors’ group Grenfell United for the study, over the two years since Grenfell an estimated 400,000 people (5%) could have encountered issues with fire safety.
Shelter has said that a new consumer regulator that oversees residents’ safety concerns should be formed to “protect tenants and rebuild trust”.
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Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Social tenants living in Grenfell Tower raised serious safety concerns before the fire, but they were ignored. Two years on, social renters are still being failed by poor regulation and people are still fighting to be heard.
“In the wake of food scandals and financial scandals, the government responded with new regulators to protect consumers, and that’s exactly what we need for social housing. It cannot be right that scores of complaints and problems that affect whole blocks of flats, like faulty lifts or gas leaks, go unheard. We need a new regulator that’s firmly on the side of tenants.
“Tinkering with the current system just isn’t good enough when people have lost trust in it to keep them safe. That’s why we stand with Grenfell United in calling on the government to establish a new consumer regulator, which inspects social landlords and listens to groups of tenants when they say something isn’t right.”
Natasha Elcock, chair of Grenfell United, said: “People were raising the alarm about fire safety in Grenfell before the fire, but they were ignored and belittled. The current housing regulator did nothing for us – it was entirely invisible. And two years later, despite all the promises, we still hear from people across the country who are not being listened to about their homes.”
YouGov polled 11,072 adults, of which 1,077 were adults who rented from a local authority or housing association between 20 and 27 May 2019. The figures have been weighted to represent all English adults aged over 18.
The report states that according to the latest English Housing Survey, there are an estimated 8.9 million social housing tenants in England (including adults and children).
If the figures from the study were replicated across all social tenants, then an estimated 5.03 million tenants would have reported problems with their homes in the past three years, of which 417,826 are estimated to have reported fire safety issues.
