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Council spent more than £16m on legal fees and compensation from housing budget in three years
A council in south London has revealed it spent a total of £16.3m on legal fees and compensation from its Housing Revenue Account (HRA) in the past three years.
The latest figures for spending from Lambeth Council’s HRA, between 2020-21 and 2022-23, were revealed under Freedom Of Information (FOI) legislation.
The outcome of the FOI request was shared on social media by resident group Save Central Hill last week.
In February 2022, Lambeth topped a list of councils that had spent money from its HRA on legal disrepair claims brought by tenants between 2017-18 and 2020-21 following a similar FOI request made as part of a larger investigation by Inside Housing.
At the time of this request, Lambeth had paid £12.1m for the four years since 2017-18. The council takes £138m in rent per year from its homes, which forms the majority of income into the HRA.
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The FOI request sent by Inside Housing to stock-owning councils across England showed that in the four years up to the end of March 2021, the 70 local authorities that provided figures faced 11,996 claims, with 55 paying out a total of £45.4m to deal with claims.
Commenting on the latest figures for legal costs spent from its HRA, Lambeth Council said that with more than 33,000 council homes, its priority is to ensure “all of these are safe and well-maintained for our tenants”.
A spokesperson said: “Despite significant cuts in government funding over more than a decade, we have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in improving our council homes and estates, in line with the Lambeth Housing Standard.
“We have also concentrated on improving the day-to-day repairs and maintenance provided to residents, including bringing in additional support and a brand new in-house repairs team. These teams currently carry out over 2,000 repairs to council homes every week.
“The council is committed to acting quickly to resolve problems when they are brought to our attention. But we’re also taking action to tackle the longer-term pressures on our repairs operation – for example, through a survey of our entire housing stock to proactively identify improvements that can be made to our homes to reduce future repairs.”
The council said that in response to what it described as a “national trend of rising disrepair claims”, it has sponsored a new, independent Disrepair Arbitration Scheme.
The spokesperson added: “Councils across the UK have faced an influx of claims, triggering mounting costs for compensation and legal fees, driven in large part by a surge in opportunistic legal firms operating in this area.
“Lambeth’s scheme aims to ensure disrepair claims are resolved faster and more fairly for our residents. Where legal costs arise from repair claims, these are paid through the associated income within the HRA ring-fence, as these costs are related to HRA properties and tenants.”
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