The year in review: councils

This has all been happening against backdrop of social landlords being scrutinised more than ever before, with a beefed-up Housing Ombudsman, which was granted new powers last year, and an English regulator that is readying itself for consumer regulation.

The ombudsman has taken a close look at how councils are performing and responding to tenants’ complaints. It made several rulings against councils in 2021 for failing to comply with complaint-handling orders. In every quarterly update, Lambeth Council was named non-compliant (and Greenwich and Enfield were each named once).

The Decent Homes Standard is set to be reviewed as part of the Social Housing White Paper – and it is clear that the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is taking a much tougher stance on those that breach it. Several councils were found in breach of it in 2021, with some shocking findings.

In July, the RSH revealed that Cornwall Council and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council were in breach, as more than 90% of both local authorities’ applicable buildings did not have a current fire risk assessment.

It found that Cornwall had “failed to meet statutory health and safety requirements in relation to fire, electrical, asbestos and water safety”.

Norwich City Council followed suit in October. It breached the Home Standard after it was found to have 1,000 overdue electrical safety assessments.

As councils were prompted to improve the conditions of their tenants’ homes, they also faced the task of housing homeless people in their area.

Local authorities were at the forefront of getting rough sleepers into accommodation during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the government wrote to councils telling them to find accommodation for all rough sleepers as part of the Everyone In scheme. But the initiative might not be as inclusive as the government has made out publicly.

The government now insists that support has not ended, but it appears that councils may have been told otherwise. As a result, the government is facing a judicial review for “misleading the public” about the scheme.

Elsewhere, the housing crisis rumbles on. A chronic shortage of homes has led to councils placing homeless households away from their local areas – sometimes as far as 200 miles away.

In July, it emerged that Waltham Forest Council evicted a family from temporary accommodation for failing to attend a viewing 180 miles away. It said the reason for this was government benefits restrictions. Councils have reported that the cost of housing in London is too high.

With housing waiting lists remaining insurmountable, what can be done to alleviate the pressure on local authorities?

Well, they can build more houses. And it seems that councils are doing just that, on a larger scale than they were in previous years. It appears that increased grant funding and the government’s removal of the Housing Revenue Account cap may be starting to show some dividends.

In November, government figures showed that affordable housing starts in England dropped by 16% last year as coronavirus restrictions severely hit council and housing association development.

But they also showed that councils delivered 6,873 affordable homes in 2020-21, representing 13% of overall completions in England and the second-highest recorded number since 1991-92. The highest figure recorded since 1991-92 – 7,438 – was in 2019-20, but that was pre-pandemic.

And councils reaped the benefits of several streams of funding this year. In April, Homes England opened the bidding for housing providers to become strategic partners and receive funding through the £12bn Affordable Homes Programme.

This meant that for the first time it would include streams for local authorities and for-profit affordable housing providers. Unfortunately, no councils made the list, and it seems that few – if any – applied.

In July, London mayor Sadiq Khan announced funding to help boroughs purchase former council homes lost under the Right to Buy.

The same month saw councils in Scotland allocated a share of more than £3.2bn in grant funding to spend on affordable housing supply over the next five years.

In August, the Greater London Authority named partners for its £3.46bn Affordable Homes Programme, including 23 local authorities.

However, despite growing development ambition, soaring prices and dwindling supplies of construction materials – caused by Brexit and the pandemic’s impact on global supply chains – will likely force some councils to revisit their plans.

Merton Council said that both issues had made its housing company “unviable”, revealing shortly before Christmas that it would be winding up the firm.

And with these increasing financial pressures, it is important that no money is wasted or misspent. Like in the case of Sutton Council, which came under fire in November for its decision to set up a district heating company after a report found that the firm could remain financially unsustainable for the next 20 years without further council support.

It also emerged in December that Nottingham City Council – currently under the watchful eye of government after falling into nearly £1bn of debt – had spent money that should have been ringfenced for housing elsewhere.

The pressures around net zero are huge for councils with a large quantity of old, inefficient stock. In September, a major survey of the sector found that more than one in six social homes could be “uneconomical” to upgrade, with a third of landlords willing to consider selling off such stock.

In October, London Councils announced a £98bn London-wide plan to retrofit more than three million homes in a bid to achieve net zero carbon in properties across the capital. All 33 local authorities in London have agreed a joint plan to retrofit 3.78 million homes.