Serious council failings uncovered in Brighton and Hove homes

The government's Regulator of Social Housing has told Brighton and Hove City Council that "significant improvement is needed" as part of its role as a social housing landlord.

The council is failing to ensure that it meets a number of legal requirements in relation to the health and safety of tenants and has a long backlog of repairs, the damning report states.

It has failed to carry out electrical and water checks on thousands of homes.

The regulator began engaging with the council in October 2023 after media coverage was circulating that suggested that Brighton and Hove City Council had a backlog of repairs.

The report said: “The information provided by Brighton and Hove City Council to us during our engagement with it demonstrates that it is failing to ensure that it meets a number of legal requirements in relation to health and safety.”

Brighton and Hove City Council owns around 12,100 social housing homes as of the date of the report.

St James House in Kemp Town a tower block owned by the council currently undergoing repairs (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta)

The regulator found that there are around 3,600 homes without a current electrical condition report, this being more than a quarter of the homes owned.

It also found that the council does not have evidence of a current electrical safety certificate for over 600 communal areas and that it cannot provide evidence that it is meeting the legal requirements concerning smoke detectors for all of its homes. 

Relating to fire safety, the council has identified over 1,700 medium and low-risk fire remedial actions, the majority of which are overdue by at least two years.

In response to the report, Councillor Gill Williams cabinet member for housing and new homes, said: “This report is a moment for our administration to make the essential changes required to meet the needs of our residents. We take this responsibility seriously and will continue to improve the social housing in our city.

“Everyone deserves to live in safe, secure, affordable and high-quality housing and should expect nothing less. This council has not met that expectation. We deeply apologise to all those who have been affected.”

A backlog of around 8,000 low risk, low priority repairs, the majority of which were raised in 2023 however some date back to 2021 (Image: The Argus)

The regulators also learned that the council has more than 600 properties where a water risk assessment is required but has not been completed, with more than 500 non-urgent water safety remedial actions that were overdue by at least three months.

A backlog of around 8,000 low-risk, low-priority repairs, the majority of which were raised in 2023 however some date back to 2021, was also in the findings of the report.

The council also shared its performance data in relation to the completion of routine repairs which shows that it has been consistently below its target timescale for more than a year. 

Cllr Williams added: “Like many councils with a largely ageing housing stock, we do face challenges in modernising our homes, and are absolutely committed to doing so.

“Even so, this report shows there are areas where even allowing for those challenges, we owe it to our residents to be performing better. Our promise now is that we will.”

In a response to the report, the council has stated that it will be making improvements to the standard of local housing and is introducing a list of urgent measures to meet the set standards.

• Investing more than £15 million in making rapid and necessary improvements to the council’s existing housing supply.

• Prioritising electrical checks on homes to ensure all wiring and installations are safe and making sure all homes have working smoke detectors.

• Carrying out water assessments in homes which have been identified as being at risk of potential problems with their water supply.

• Fast-tracking fire safety assessments, particularly in properties with communal areas.

• Clearing a historic backlog of repair work and reducing response times for new requests. This will include working with external contractors to increase available resources and expertise.

• Improving its collection and analysis of data to make sure future work is underpinned by more robust statistical insight and more comprehensive records are maintained.

Tenants will be contacted about the improvements with details as to when they will be made.