Lambeth Council breached Home Standard over ‘long-standing’ safety issues

News13 Nov 2019Sarah Williams

The London Borough of Lambeth breached the Home Standard after failing to meet statutory health and safety requirements relating to fire safety, gas safety and asbestos management, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has said.

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In a regulatory notice published today, the RSH said it had ascertained that, over a number of years, Lambeth has had a significant number of overdue remedial actions arising from fire risk assessments (FRAs). This included some FRAs considered within the borough’s own classification system to be “intolerable” or “substantial”, the regulator said.

The regulator said that it had also concluded, through its engagement with the provider, that there had been failings across Lambeth’s statutory duties relating to asbestos management and gas safety.

For asbestos, the regulator noted that more than 180 surveys of communal areas had not been carried out, including “high and medium risk properties”. It said that some of these had been outstanding “for a number of years”, but it added that Lambeth has reported that these surveys are now complete.

On gas safety, the regulator found that more than 40 properties were without valid safety certificates for up to 24 months. It said that Lambeth had made “significant improvements” in ensuring all properties have a valid gas safety certificate.

With regard to fire safety, it also noted that Lambeth has reported that it has no intolerable or substantial remedial actions outstanding.

“Complying with statutory health and safety requirements is a fundamental responsibility of all registered providers because of the potential for serious harm to tenants. In this case the regulator has concluded that the risk of serious harm has been demonstrated because a significant number of LB Lambeth tenants have been potentially exposed to risk over a period of time.”

The regulator said that it has assurance that Lambeth is now addressing the issues identified.

It added: “There is evidence to show that improvements have been made over the last six months with significant increase in resources being applied by LB Lambeth. The position on compliance continues to change with LB Lambeth having significantly accelerated the pace with which it is progressing on remedial works.”

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “Lambeth Council takes the safety of our residents incredibly seriously and has made significant strides recently in improving the safety of our properties. This good progress is recognised by the Regulator of Social Housing.

“Lambeth has 100 per cent compliance when it comes to fire risk assessments: all of our buildings and dwelling stock have a FRA in place. Additionally, earlier this year, we allocated millions of pounds towards further safety measures, including the installation of sprinklers in tower blocks. Work is continuing at pace to make sure our coverage of sprinklers is as wide as possible.

The spokesperson added: “In the areas identified by the regulator, Lambeth has taken swift action to resolve these matters. There are no longer any outstanding asbestos surveys or ‘intolerable’ or ‘significant’ fire risk actions. On outstanding gas certificates, only a very small number remain outstanding, equating to a current position of 99.9 per cent compliance.

“Those very few cases are being handled by dedicated council enforcement officers who are working on a day-by-day basis to resolve resident access issues. We firmly believe that – taken together – robust measures are now in place to ensure all these standards are maintained. This compares well with the wider social housing sector and other local authorities.”

Lambeth is the latest in a string of councils found to have breached regulatory standards over safety in recent months.

In a notice published on 30 October, Runnymede Borough Council was found to have breached the Home Standard over issues relating to electrical certification and FRAs, while in September four councils were found to have breached the standard through their shared ALMO, East Kent Housing.

In May, the regulator wrote to stock-holding councils reminding them of their obligations under its consumer standards, particularly with regard to the expectations of the Home Standard on health and safety.

The letter highlighted that the obligation remains with local authorities where they are the stock-owning body “even if the management has been contracted to another body such as an ALMO”.