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A London borough responsible around 22,500 homes has breached statutory health and safety requirements, with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) finding fault with fire safety, gas safety and asbestos management.
In identifying the breach, RSH warns of the potential for “serious detriment” to Lambeth Council tenants.
RSH will now work with the council to remedy this breach while considering what further action should be taken – including whether to exercise any of its powers.
The regulatory report recognises that though – on the evidence – the council’s past response to health and safety matters has been slow, RSH now has assurance issues are being addressed.
Lambeth Council owns and manages around 22,500 homes and, as a local authority, is required to comply with the relevant consumer standards.
RSH received information which caused it to investigate the council’s compliance with the Home Standard and the resulting investigation found the council failed to meet statutory health and safety requirements relating to fire safety, gas safety and asbestos management.
In terms of fire safety, RSH ascertained that the council has, over a number of years, had a significant number of overdue remedial actions arising from Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) including some for FRAs considered – based on the council’s own classification system – to be Intolerable or Substantial.
The council has reported it has no Intolerable or Substantial remedial actions outstanding.
RSH also identified failings on asbestos, with over 180 surveys of communal areas not been carried out – included high and medium risk properties.
Asbestos surveys for some of these properties were found by RSH to have been outstanding for a number of years.
The council has reported these surveys are now complete.
Over gas safety, RSH found that over 40 properties were without valid safety certificates for up to 24 months.
The regulatory report recognises that the council has made “significant improvements” in ensuring all properties have a valid gas safety certificate.
The report says that while there is evidence of the council’s past response to health and safety matters having been slow, RSH now has assurance identified issues are being addressed, with additional capacity and resources – including use of external advice – in place to develop an action plan prioritising and addressing specific areas of non-compliance, as well as the underlying weaknesses in its systems.
Background – The Lambeth breach
RSH considered the case as a breach of the Home Standard which requires registered providers to meet all applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of occupants in their homes.
RSH concluded that Lambeth Council did not have an effective system in place to allow it to manage the risk of tenant safety and meet its statutory health and safety responsibilities across a range of areas.
Historic information showed an overall weak position in terms of landlord health and safety compliance, with RSH noting significant changes have recently taken place including a change in senior leadership, a restructure of the compliance function and increased resources.
RSH also referenced evidence of an increased pace in the work being delivered to address the issues.
But there is still work to do, particularly on implementing a robust system to deliver, monitor and oversee the management of health and safety compliance.
Taking into account the breadth and scale of the failure with particular regard to fire, asbestos and gas safety, and the longstanding nature of the issues, RSH determined that a breach finding is proportionate.
RSH concludes that in Lambeth the risk of serious harm has been demonstrated because a significant number of tenants have been potentially exposed to risk over a period of time.
