Brent Council slammed for major housing safety and quality shortcomings

The Regulator of Social Housing has issued a damning judgement against the London Borough of Brent, highlighting huge deficiencies in the council’s ability to meet essential safety and quality standards for its tenants.

This comes a week after the council announced a crackdown on private landlords and the standards of homes in its area with door-to-door inspections.

The local authority has been assigned a C3 consumer grade, indicating ‘serious failings’ that require substantial improvement, following an investigation prompted by the council’s own admission of issues in April.

The regulator’s findings stem from concerns over the accuracy and reliability of Brent’s fire safety data, initially raised through a self-referral.

The council reported closing around 12,500 fire risk assessment actions within the past year.

However, a subsequent spot check revealed that many of these actions lacked evidence of completion, with some not carried out at all.

Most of these actions are classified as high or medium risk and are now considered overdue until proper documentation is provided.

Failed to keep records

Brent’s failure to maintain accurate records for fire safety, smoke and carbon monoxide safety, asbestos management and water safety has raised serious concerns about its data integrity.

The council’s inability to confirm which legally required checks and assessments have been completed has further compounded the issue.

In addition to safety concerns, the regulator found that nearly half of Brent’s housing stock lacks recorded surveys, despite the council claiming to have condition data for 95% of its properties.

This gap raises doubts about how Brent ensures its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard, which mandates good-quality, well-maintained and safe residences for tenants.

Failed to meet standards

The regulator states: “The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas, and to ensure that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are completed within appropriate timescales.

“The standard also requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants, and to ensure that their tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard.

“Through our responsive engagement with LB Brent, we have found serious failings in its ability to meet these requirements and that these failings have negatively affected service outcomes for tenants.”

Brent let tenants down

Brent council’s cabinet member for housing and resident services, Councillor Fleur Donnelly-Jackson, said: “We take our responsibilities as a landlord very seriously and the council accepts that we have let tenants down in the areas outlined by the Regulator and for this we apologise unreservedly.

“In this instance, we have fallen short of our responsibilities as a landlord and failed to meet the expectations of our tenants.”

She added: “The council is determined to improve the quality of council homes.

“We have made real progress in recent months – from launching a new damp and mould squad to action days where teams blitz through repairs that are needed on council estates – but we know there is still much more to do.”

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