Decision

Regulatory Notice: Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (6 March 2024)

Published 6 March 2024

Applies to England

RSH Regulatory Notice

• Provider: Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council

• Registration number: 00CZ

• Publication date: 6 March 2024

• Reason for publication: Consumer Standards

• Regulatory route: Reactive Engagement

Other providers included in the judgement

None

Regulatory Findings

The regulator has concluded that:

a) Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (Kirklees MBC) has breached part 1.2 of the Home Standard; and

b) As a consequence of this breach, there was the potential for serious detriment to Kirklees MBC’s tenants.

The regulator will work with Kirklees MBC as it seeks to remedy this breach.

The issue

Kirklees MBC made a self-referral to the regulator as it had identified a failure to meet statutory health and safety requirements in some of its homes. Through our engagement with Kirklees MBC, we identified a significant number of overdue fire remedial actions. Kirklees MBC also told us that since December 2022 it had a consistently high number of homes with unresolved cases of damp and mould.

Our investigation

As a registered provider, Kirklees MBC is required to comply with the consumer standards, including the Home Standard. The Home Standard requires registered providers to meet all applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of tenants in their homes. It also requires registered providers to have a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service to homes and communal areas that responds to the needs of tenants.

In respect of fire safety, Kirklees MBC has a statutory duty^{[footnote 1]} to regularly assess and take precautions to prevent the risk of fire. Kirklees MBC had completed fire risk assessments for all blocks that required one. However, our investigations found that more than 20,000 fire remedial actions from fire risk assessments were currently overdue. We found that more than 200 of the overdue remedial actions were high-risk actions. Kirklees MBC is developing a plan to complete these actions promptly. 

With regards to damp and mould, the Home Standard requires landlords to provide a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service that responds to the needs of tenants. Kirklees MBC told us it had consistently high numbers of cases of damp and mould in its homes that it had not resolved. Our investigations found there were over 1,500 uncompleted repairs relating to damp and mould, and more than 1,000 of these were classed as high risk, taking into account the needs of tenants living in the homes and the length of time the works were overdue.

The regulator considered the case as a potential breach of part 1.2 of the Home Standard and has concluded that Kirklees MBC did not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its statutory health and safety responsibilities in relation to fire safety. It was also not providing a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service, as it did not respond effectively to the significant numbers of high-risk damp and mould cases in its homes.   

Complying with statutory health and safety requirements and providing an effective repairs service are fundamental responsibilities of all registered providers because of the potential for serious harm to tenants. Kirklees MBC has demonstrated to the regulator that it now understands the work it needs to undertake to ensure relevant safety actions are completed and to respond to the outstanding damp and mould repairs. However, taking into account the seriousness of the issues, the duration that tenants were exposed to risk, and the number of tenants potentially affected, the regulator has concluded that Kirklees MBC has breached the Home Standard and that there was a risk of serious detriment to tenants during this period. 

Our engagement

Section 198A of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (as amended) states that the regulator’s regulatory and enforcement powers may be used if a registered provider has failed to meet a consumer standard. In order to use regulatory or enforcement powers, as well as the failure to meet the standard, there should also be reasonable grounds to suspect that the failure has resulted in a serious detriment to the provider’s tenants (or potential tenants) or that there is a significant risk that, if no action is taken by the regulator, the failure will result in a serious detriment to the provider’s tenants (or potential tenants).

Kirklees MBC has put in place a programme to rectify these failures and the regulator will therefore not take statutory action at this stage, as it has assurance that the breach of the standard is being remedied. The regulator will work with Kirklees MBC as it continues to address the issues that have led to this situation, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its fire remedial programme and addresses reports of damp and mould.

About our Regulatory Notices

Regulatory notices are issued in response to an event of regulatory importance (for example, a finding of a breach of the Rent Standard or of a consumer standard that has or may cause serious harm) that, in accordance with its obligation to be transparent, the regulator wishes to make public. More detail about Regulatory notices is set out in Regulating the Standards.

1. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 ↩