Council launches Good Landlord Plan after housing failures

A council has promised to “become a good landlord for tenants and leaseholders” following a series of failures in its housing stock.

Southwark council has approved its Good Landlord Plan, which aims to tackle damp and mould and build more council homes.

The news comes after the Housing Ombudsman blasted the council for failing to fix a contaminated water problem, which a resident was forced to fix themselves.

The Regulator of Social Housing also found that more than half of the council’s properties lacked smoke alarms.

Act more quickly when dealing with repairs

Southwark council admits “it does not always get it right as a landlord” but is determined to help residents.

Under the Good Landlord Plan, the council will invest £250 million over the next three years to improve homes including work on fire, electrical and water safety.

The council also promise to act more quickly when dealing with repairs in its home, especially damp and mould.

The council also say they will create a new housing complaints team to help make sure concerns are dealt with correctly alongside building more council homes for local people.

We may not always get it right

Councillor Sarah King, cabinet member for council homes, said: “We want everyone to have a safe, good-quality home and we are committed to becoming a good landlord for all our tenants and leaseholders.

“We’ve listened carefully to our residents and we know that we must listen more and act faster.

“The Good Landlord Plan puts residents at the heart of everything that we do; taking action to create better homes, better estates, better repairs and better customer service.

“As a landlord to around 125,000 people, we may not always get it right, but this plan means that we’ll be guided by our residents to make decisions that are best for them.”

Housing failures

The council’s actions come after a series of failures, in which 50% of Southwark Council’s homes have not had an electrical condition test in over five years, and more than half of the homes are without smoke alarms.

The Housing Ombudsman also recently reported a case where the council failed to fix a contaminated water leak for several months.

Despite a plumber determining the council was responsible for the repair, the council claimed it could not complete the work due to several other repairs being needed to replace the water tank.

In the end, the resident fixed the problem themselves by replacing the boiler. The council later told the Housing Ombudsman it would carry out “a thorough review and introduce a new compliant IT system.”