You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
London council ‘failed to deliver basic housing services’, report finds
A council in London has pledged to make “major improvements” to its housing operations after an independent investigation found that it failed to deliver even basic services effectively.
Several issues within Croydon Council’s housing department were highlighted by the investigation, including “a lack of capacity and competence” and “a lack of care and respect for residents”.
The report was commissioned by the council after an investigation by ITV News revealed poor conditions within a tower block on Regina Road, including walls turned entirely black from mould and sodden carpets due to heavy leaks.
Carried out by Ark Consultancy, the investigation said that the problems at Regina Road “led to a failure to deliver even basic ‘core’ housing services effectively” and that the issues “are potentially symptomatic of poor performance across the council’s housing service and impact on its ability to drive self-improvement”.
It listed the issues found within Croydon’s housing service as follows:
- A lack of capacity and competence
- A poor operating culture with a lack of care and respect for tenants
- Systemic problems in how the council communicates and deals with tenants’ concerns and complaints
- Weak performance management meaning senior managers do not appear to know what is going on
- Poor use of data and ‘intelligence’ by the council and its contractors
READ MORE
The report found that the council has “significant issues with staffing” and that “problems with recruitment” have led to vacancies, most notably in the repairs teams, some of which are operating with only half their staffing requirement.
It also found that each tenancy officer is responsible for a patch of more than 1,000 homes, which Ark said is twice as much as it would expect, and that “recruitment and retention issues means that an increasing proportion of staff lack the experience and skills needed”.
The report also identified “an outmoded culture and attitude among a number of council staff towards tenants”, with tenants being “seen as demanding, difficult to deal with and less worthy of respect”.
At the same time the council “lacks a simple, effective, clear and accessible route for getting concerns and complaints resolved”, the report said.
In response to the investigation, Croydon Council has pledged to make “major improvements” to its housing services, including “a programme of improvement works to make its housing services fit for purpose”.
To oversee this work the council will set up a “housing improvement board” which will include council representatives and an independent chair. The board will hold regular public meetings and examine the council’s housing services in terms of resident satisfaction and overall performance.
The council said that existing vacancies and skills gaps “are being addressed immediately”, while two new specialist teams will be set up to improve investment in housing stock and performance including repairs, complaints and contract management.
It said the immediate issues of those living at Regina Road have already been addressed and new homes have been found for residents in three of the flats.
A full building safety inspection has also been carried out and the council said it has met directly with residents and offered to support them to set up a tenants’ representative group.
The report comes six months after Croydon Council was forced to effectively declare itself bankrupt after revealing it had a £66m budget deficit, although local authority housing services are delivered through the ringfenced Housing Revenue Account so in theory should be unaffected.
Hamida Ali, leader of Croydon Council, said: “Ark’s report raises some very concerning issues about our housing services, and on behalf of the whole council I apologise to the residents who we’ve let down.
“We fully accept the report’s findings, and although we have taken urgent steps to address immediate issues highlighted at Regina Road, it is clear we must do much more to improve things for all our residents.
“We are totally resolved to addressing the issues found by the investigators and changing the experiences of our council residents as quickly as we can.
“As a result, we are now in the process of beginning a much wider-reaching improvement programme that will transform housing services across the board so that they are fit for purpose.
“This will be much more than repairing bricks and mortar; we must, most importantly, also repair our relationship with our council residents, build back their trust and make sure they are listened to and heard as we make these changes.
“We will also give our council residents a much greater say and involvement in how their housing services are run so that, together, we can be sure they are receiving the well-run quality services that they deserve and that meet their needs.”
Sign up for our Council Focus newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
