‘Deeply worrying’: Campaigners blame ‘feeble’ repairs system for Hackney woman’s death
A protest by the Social Housing Action Campaign last year. Photograph: SHAC / X
Social housing campaigners have blamed poor local government funding for the death of a Hackney woman who fell from a council block while trying to fix her blocked drainpipe.
Sarah McGreevy, 37, had climbed onto a wooden box on her sixth-floor balcony on 16 June in an attempt to manually unblock the pipe, which had been fixed using “heavy duty tape”, a coroner’s report found.
Her landlord, the leaseholder of the flat, revealed that since her tragic death there had been no repairs made to the building’s drainpipes or guttering by Hackney Council, the freeholder.
Coroner Sarah Bourke warned the Town Hall that there was a risk of future deaths unless it took action.
“In the absence of remedial works, the practice of residents unblocking pipes themselves is likely to continue,” her report stated.
The Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) said it was “deeply worrying” that nothing had been done to safeguard other residents, and stressed that a lack of funding for councils was a common factor leading to “botched” repairs.
“We know that council budgets have sustained heavy cuts over the last couple of decades and this means that work to maintain homes to acceptable standards inevitably gets pushed down the list of priorities.
“Government has to make sure that councils are fully-funded to make repairs and do them properly — not botched, as in this case, [and] leading to more problems.”
Since 2010, local government funding has faced “some of the largest cuts seen by any public services over this period”, according to a June report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The council recently suggested it may be forced to apply for emergency funding from the government in the future if its financial pressures do not abate.
The SHAC spokesperson continued: “The system at the moment is feeble. The laws requiring repairs are there, but there is a huge chasm when it comes to enforcement, with no agency having the power to force landlords to act.
“Much tougher and more meaningful sanctions are needed against landlords who do not carry out repairs adequately. It is no surprise that some will end up putting their own lives in danger by trying to fix the problems themselves.”
A spokesperson for Hackney Council said: “This is a tragic case and our thoughts are with the friends and family of Sarah McGreevy.
“The coroner has detailed a number of issues for us to consider in her Prevention of Future Deaths report.
“We do not expect anyone living in a Hackney Council home to clean their own guttering and, like the coroner, we want to ensure an incident like this doesn’t happen again.
“We will be carefully going through her report and responding as quickly as possible.”
The council has a duty to respond to the coroner’s report by 1 January 2025, outlining details of actions taken or to be taken, including a timetable.
If no further steps are proposed, the Town Hall must explain why.
The Citizen asked Hackney Council to provide details of the cleaning and maintenance regime for its housing stock, but the spokesperson said the Town Hall would not comment on the matter before issuing its full response to the coroner.
Hackney Greens’ co-leader, Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, said McGreevy’s death raises “serious questions”.
“We will be demanding answers from the council to ensure that every possible measure is in place to protect the safety of Hackney residents,” he said.
The SHAC said Ms McGreevy was trying to prevent water getting into her rental flat—a frequent problem for tenants.
“Unfortunately, leaks leading to mould and damp are still a huge source of complaints to SHAC.
“Even a small leak can cause terrible damage to property, have long-term implications when mould develops, and cause physical ill health too.
“At the moment, getting such problems addressed can take many months to progress through the landlord’s procedures and then the Ombudsman or courts.”