Decision

Regulatory Notice: London Borough of Haringey (6 March 2023)

Published 6 March 2023

Applies to England

RSH Regulatory Notice

• Provider: London Borough of Haringey

• Registration number: 00AP

• Publication date: 6 March 2023

• Reason for publication: Consumer Standards

• Regulatory route: Reactive Engagement

Other providers included in the judgement

None

Regulatory Findings

The regulator has concluded that:

a) London Borough of Haringey (LB Haringey) has breached parts 1.1 and 1.2 of the Home Standard; and

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

The regulator will work with LB Haringey as it seeks to remedy this breach.

The issue

LB Haringey made a self-referral to the regulator in January 2023 as it had identified a failure to meet statutory health and safety requirements in some of its homes. LB Haringey told us it had not completed fire and electrical safety checks for every property which needed one and a high number of fire remedial actions were overdue. Through our investigation, we also learned that a significant proportion of LB Haringey’s properties do not meet the Decent Homes Standard.

Our investigation

As a registered provider, LB Haringey is required to comply with the consumer standards, including the Home Standard. The Home Standard requires registered providers to ensure tenants’ homes meet the criteria set out in government’s Decent Homes Standard.^{[footnote 1]} The Home Standard also requires registered providers to meet all applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of tenants in their homes.

In relation to the quality of its homes, LB Haringey reported that 30% of its properties did not comply with the Decent Homes Standard and had identified more than a hundred Category One hazards. A full stock condition survey is in progress, however the proportion of homes currently not meeting the required criteria is significant.

In respect of fire safety,^{[footnote 2]} LB Haringey has a statutory duty to regularly assess the risk of fire and to take precautions to prevent the risk of fire. A recent external review of health and safety found that a large number of residential blocks were without a current Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) and very large numbers of fire remedial actions were overdue. More than 4,000 of these overdue actions were high risk, with over half of these overdue for more than 12 months. While LB Haringey has now completed almost all of the FRAs, there remains a high volume of remedial work to complete.

In respect of electrical safety, LB Haringey is required to ensure that electrical installations are in working and safe condition both at the start of any tenancy and throughout that tenancy.^{[footnote 3]} At the time of the external review, a number of blocks were without a communal Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), and LB Haringey was unable to confirm that around 4,000 properties had a domestic EICR completed within the last 10 years.

The regulator considered the case as a potential breach of parts 1.1 and 1.2 of the Home Standard and has concluded that LB Haringey did not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its responsibilities in relation to the quality of its homes, and in relation to statutory health and safety compliance across a range of areas.

Providing good quality homes and complying with statutory health and safety requirements are fundamental responsibilities of all registered providers because of the potential for serious harm to tenants. LB Haringey has demonstrated to the regulator that it now understands the work it needs to undertake to resolve the issues, both in relation to its compliance with the Decent Homes Standard and to ensure all relevant safety actions are completed. However, taking into account the seriousness of the issues, the duration for which tenants were exposed to risk, and the number of tenants potentially affected, the regulator has concluded that LB Haringey has breached the Home Standard and that there was a risk of serious detriment to tenants during this period.

Our engagement

LB Haringey has started to put in place an urgent programme to rectify these failures. The regulator will work with LB Haringey as it continues to address the issues which have led to this situation, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its health and safety and decency programme. We will continue to keep our use of statutory powers under regular review through our engagement with LB Haringey.

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).

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. A Decent Home: Definition and Guidance for implementation (June 2006 - Update) ↩

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

3. Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. ↩