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Councils working through health and safety issues have been granted deadline extensions by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) because of the coronavirus.
Canterbury, Dover, Thanet and Folkestone & Hythe councils were all hit with regulatory notices in September over fire, electrical, water, lift and gas safety failings.
The four councils’ combined 17,000 homes are managed by ALMO East Kent Housing (EKH) – which is due to be shut down in the autumn.
Progress to sort out the safety issues has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting the RSH to allow the councils flexibility over the timetables in their regulatory action plans.
A spokesperson for the four local authorities and EKH said: “Before the coronavirus outbreak, EKH was making good progress and was up to date on its recovery action plan. Regular briefings were also being given to the RSH.
“Life has become far more difficult for all social landlords since the lockdown because of the need to protect some tenants who have to be shielded and some who are vulnerable in other ways.
“That, understandably, makes them very reluctant to allow contractors in.
“Others are self-isolating because of COVID-19-style symptoms being experienced in the household.
“In the light of the difficulties being faced across the sector, the regulator has acknowledged the fact we may need to move back some of the dates detailed in our plans.
“Of course, as soon as we are able to ramp our activity back up again, we will do so.”
As of December, there were 24,000 outstanding compliance issues across homes managed by EKH.
A spokesperson for the RSH said: “The restrictions imposed by coronavirus present significant challenges for providers, and we will respond proportionately where they face difficulties with compliance.
“We remain in touch with existing non-compliant providers to monitor their on-going progress.
“Any provider should tell us promptly about material issues that relate to non-compliance or potential non-compliance with the regulatory standards, focusing on health and safety, significant service delivery risks to vulnerable tenants, and financial viability.”
Inside Housing is not aware of any other social landlords which have been given similar flexibilities.
Lambeth Council, which was issued a regulatory notice over safety failings in November, said it has not made any such agreement with the RSH.
Cheshire Peaks & Plains Housing Trust, which was hit with a notice in December and declared non-compliant with RSH standards in March after safety concerns, said it has not yet agreed any voluntary undertaking deadlines with the regulator.
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