Lack of gas and electrical safety checks to council homes a ‘serious failure’, says housing regulator

Cllr Clayeon McKenzie, Cabinet Member for Housing Services and Resident Participation. Photograph: Hackney Council

Thousands of council homes in Hackney have not had gas and electrical safety inspections, according to a new report.

The Regulator of Social Housing has said Hackney Council’s housing department is guilty of “serious failings” and needs to make “significant improvements”.

The information provided by Hackney Council to the regulator showed that it is failing to meet health and safety legal requirements .

The council admitted that it has over 400 homes that have not received a gas safety inspection within the legally-required timeframe.

Similarly, it revealed that it has also failed to meet electrical safety requirements, reporting that over 15,000 of its 21,500 social housing homes are without a current electrical safety certificate.

Of those, around 7,000 have never had an electrical safety inspection.

The council also disclosed that it does not have evidence of a current electrical safety certificate for over 200 communal areas.

It was unable to provide assurance that smoke detectors were fitted in almost 9,000 homes and that carbon monoxide detectors were fitted in over 400 homes.

There are also 400 Hackney Council homes that have not had a gas safety inspection within the required timeframe.

The council has more than 1,400 open damp and mould cases in tenants’ homes.

The Council was unable to confirm that health and safety requirements are met for asbestos (170 properties), water safety (80 residential blocks) and lift safety checks (90 inspections).

The Town Hall was given a “C3 grade” for failing to meet the new consumer standards for social housing landlords introduced in April 2024.

C1 grade is the highest achievable, whilst C4 is the lowest.

“Landlords must provide safe and decent homes for tenants by taking a proactive approach to delivering the outcomes of our standards”, said Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH.

“Making sure tenants’ homes are safe and keeping up-to-date data is key to meeting these objectives, as is ensuring there are effective approaches to handling complaints and engaging with tenants.

“The issues outlined in the judgements published today need to be addressed promptly and we are working intensively with each of the landlords as they put things right for their tenants.”

Cllr Clayeon McKenzie, Cabinet Member for Housing Services and Resident Participation, said: “We have never hidden the fact that we need to improve the service we provide to the people living in our homes.

“We have made strides towards this, and we are seeing improvements in both performance and resident satisfaction, but we fully acknowledge there is still more to do”.

In November 2023, Hackney Council reported that the housing service’s overall tenant satisfaction rate had increased to 59 per cent, up from the 52 per cent recorded in 2022.

The largest jump was in “satisfaction that [the] landlord keeps tenants informed about the things that matter”. It is now 71 per cent, up from 56 per cent.

The smallest change was in “satisfaction with [the] landlord’s approach to handling complaints”. This increased by two per cent, from 26 per cent in 2022 to 28 per cent in 2023.

“As one of the biggest social landlords, there are huge challenges in delivering high quality services – including a national shortage of council and affordable homes, overcrowding and years of national underinvestment in council housing”, Cllr McKenzie’s statement continued.

“However, I can reassure everyone that we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. We know the positive impact well maintained, safe and warm housing can have on people’s lives.

“While we fully acknowledge and accept the regulator’s findings, since submitting our self-referral we have improved in all the five areas, and we are now compliant with the fire risk assessment of communal areas. For the remaining areas we have improvement plans in place to ensure compliance by the end of August.

Hackney Council say they have now completed 98 per cent of their gas safety checks, 99 per cent of their asbestos safety checks, 95 per cent of their water safety checks and 85 per cent of their lift safety checks.

“Obviously, the report’s findings are disappointing, however, we will continue to work with the regulator and all of our residents and Tenant Resident Associations throughout our improvement journey”.

Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, co-leader of Hackney Green Party, took to X to reiterate his call for Cllr McKenzie to resign: “[…] The Regulator for Social Housing found Hackney Council to have serious failings as a social landlord, inc. serious safety failures.

“This is why Hackney Greens have called for the resignation of the cabinet member responsible. New leadership needed.”