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London council breaches Home Standard over missing safety data for thousands of homes
A London council was found to have breached the Home Standard by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) after an internal audit revealed missing data for a range of safety checks, including fire, gas and asbestos.
A London council was found to have breached the Home Standard by the Regulator of Social Housing after an internal audit revealed missing data for a range of safety checks, including fire, gas and asbestos #UKhousingFollowing a self-referral from Barking and Dagenham Council, the regulator found that the local authority did not have clear safety records for thousands of homes.
It found that the council did not have fire risk assessments (FRAs) in place for more than 100 properties, and did not have a clear record of whether an FRA was required for more than 1,000.
The council reported that for more than 16,000 of its domestic properties and more than 2,000 communal areas, it either did not have a clear record of whether a current electrical installation condition report was required or could not evidence that such a check had previously been completed.
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The regulator found that the council did not have clear records for whether more than 1,000 properties with communal areas should be included on the asbestos survey programme.
Almost 3,000 properties and 2,000 communal areas also required data validation to establish whether they should be included on the gas safety programme.
Barking and Dagenham also had more than 100 communal assets on its lift safety programme and around a quarter of these did not have an up-to-date inspection.
The local authority had “no assurance” of whether more than 1,000 properties needed to be included in its water safety compliance programme.
“For these reasons, the regulator has concluded that LB Barking and Dagenham has breached the Home Standard, and that, as a consequence, there was the potential for serious detriment to tenants,” the regulator said.
Dominic Twomey, deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, performance and core services at Barking and Dagenham Council, said: “The council, as part of its commitment to be a good landlord, requires frequent checks on the health and safety of our council homes.
“We do this work in partnership with our repairs and maintenance partner, the BD Group, a company owned by the council.
“BD Group carried out an audit of the manner in which these health and safety checks are carried out and discovered that whilst checks had been taking place, the council could not verify those checks through its internal paper trail.
“The council then voluntarily referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing.
“The regulator has agreed with our findings and is working with us to implement our improvement programme.”
Mr Twomey said the council has immediately started delivery of that programme and has “already met the required standards in matters relating to gas, water, lifts and asbestos”.
“We can also confirm that we have instructed an independent company to carry out our new fire risk assessments from February 2022 and expect them to complete the programme by the summer of 2022.
“These assessments, alongside our electrical testing programme, shows the commitment we have to all tenants in council-owned properties to make them the safest in London,” he added.
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