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RSH provides no ‘convincing evidence’ that Clarion did not breach standards on Eastfields Estate, MPs say
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has provided no “convincing evidence” that Clarion’s handling of issues on the Eastfields Estate did not breach standards, according to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee.
In its first report on its inquiry into the regulation of social housing, the committee concluded that Clarion’s handling of conditions on the estate in Merton, south London, did constitute a systemic failure, despite the English regulator’s conclusion to the contrary.
Clarion, which owns and manages around 125,000 homes across the country, referred itself to the RSH after an ITV News report in June 2021 revealed the terrible conditions on the Eastfields Estate, including widespread disrepair and vermin infestations.
In many cases, residents had to wait long periods for issues to be rectified by the landlord, including one family who had lived for eight months without lights on the top floor of their home.
At the time, the landlord apologised to residents and admitted that its service “had not been to the standard that we would like”.
The regulator investigated Clarion, but said it “did not find evidence of systemic or organisational failure which indicates a breach of the consumer standards”.
However, the LUHC Committee has disagreed with this finding.
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During the inquiry, MPs asked Jonathan Walters, deputy chief executive of the RSH, how a social landlord that “had mismanaged an estate as badly as Clarion”, could be found compliant with the regulator’s consumer standards?
Mr Walters compared it with the situation at Regina Road, a block owned by Croydon Council, which also featured in ITV’s investigation.
He said Croydon Council was found guilty of systemic failure because it “simply did not have the systems to identify that things were going wrong”, whereas Clarion “had those systems and processes in place”.
However, the LUHC Committee said: “We did not find the explanation by the regulator of why Clarion could be compliant in the case of Eastfields to be convincing, especially given the comparison with Croydon Council and Regina Road.
“Croydon had been found guilty of systemic failure because it ‘simply did not have the systems to identify that things were going wrong’, whereas Clarion ‘had those systems and processes in place’ yet still allowed things to go wrong.
“The former suggests incompetence, the latter suggests indifference – but our view is that both constitute systemic failure.”
As a result, the committee has recommended that the regulator scrap the ‘systemic failure test’, under which it only intervenes when there is a systemic failure within an organisation.
Mr Walters told Inside Housing: “Our investigation found specific issues where tenants were living in poor-quality homes in relation to homes on the Eastfields Estate in Merton.
“Although we did not find evidence of wider organisational failure which indicated a breach of the current consumer standards, we were clear that this was not acceptable and publicly called on Clarion to take further steps to fix these issues.”
He added that landlords “need to fix individual issues” which they are responsible for and if they fail to do so, “the Housing Ombudsman has a role in relation to individual issues and redress”.
A spokesperson for Clarion said: “We have apologised to residents where our service fell short on the Eastfields Estate, invested significantly to improve existing homes and published a comprehensive lessons learned report.
“Our focus now is the regeneration of the community, where we will bring forward hundreds of new affordable homes in Eastfields and thousands of new homes across Merton.”
Published today, the LUCH Committee’s report on its inquiry includes a number of other recommendations to improve the quality and regulation of social housing, including more government funding for regeneration, a more proactive approach to stock condition surveys and better tenant representation.
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