Lewisham Council risked ‘serious detriment’ to tenants over fire safety and repairs, regulator finds

“LB Lewisham [the London Borough of Lewisham] told us it had not completed a significant number of overdue fire remedial actions and had a high number of repairs not completed within its service timescales,” the regulatory notice said. 

“Through our investigation, we learned that a significant proportion of LB Lewisham’s homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) and also found that LB Lewisham did not assess the severity of damp and mould cases using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).”

Where the quality of homes is concerned, the council reported that 17 per cent of its homes did not comply with the DHS. However, it does not have complete data for its properties, the RSH said, and is currently carrying out a stock condition survey to enable it to “develop a plan to address the non-decency”. 

Lewisham told the regulator that it had more than 18,000 “work in progress” repairs. However, the council has “not been meeting its service standards” for completing both emergency and non-emergency repairs. For example, between April and December 2023 fewer than 55 per cent were completed on time.

The borough also reported that waiting times for residents calling its contact centre were “significant”, with “high rates of abandoned calls” as a result.

On fire safety, Lewisham had completed fire risk assessments for all blocks that required one, but more than 5,000 remedial actions were overdue, of which over 200 were “high risk actions”, the RSH found. 

It added: “We have concluded that LB Lewisham does not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its responsibilities in relation to the quality of its homes, providing a cost-effective repairs service and its statutory health and safety responsibilities.”

The regulator said that Lewisham has put in place a programme to rectify the failures, and that it would continue to work with the borough to remedy the issues. The regulator will therefore “not take statutory action at this stage”, because it has assurance that the issues are being remedied. However, the use of its statutory powers will remain under review and it will consider “what further action may need to be taken”, the notice said. 

Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at the RSH said: “All social landlords need to provide good-quality homes and services for their tenants, underpinned by robust data. Lewisham Council has failed to do this. 

“The council referred itself to us when it found problems and is engaging with us constructively to put things right for tenants. We will continue to scrutinise the council as it carries out this work.” 

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: “In October 2023, Lewisham Council took over responsibility for managing and maintaining more than 13,500 social rent homes across the borough, following the transfer of staff and services from the arm’s-length management organisation Lewisham Homes.

“We are determined to make improvements and tackle some persistent problems in the service, and as part of this process we decided to self-refer to the Regulator of Social Housing in December 2023.

“We take the regulator’s findings very seriously and we acknowledge our underperformance and ongoing challenges in some areas of the service.

“We have already made some progress, which the regulator recognises in its notice. We will continue working with the regulator until we have satisfied their concerns and achieved full compliance for our residents.”

The notice comes just days before a new era of consumer regulation in England begins next month, following the passing of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act last year. From 1 April, the regulator will apply its new consumer standards to all social landlords. This will include inspections for landlords with more than 1,000 homes, including councils, taking a proactive approach to ensuring they are meeting the standards.

The regulator has said it expects many social housing providers will have “work to do” before achieving the highest grade under the new consumer regulation regime.