Decision

Regulatory Notice: London Borough of Lewisham (26 March 2024)

Published 26 March 2024

Applies to England

RSH Regulatory Notice

• Provider: London Borough of Lewisham

• Regulatory code: 00AZ

• Publication date: 26 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) The London Borough of Lewisham (LB Lewisham) is not meeting the required outcomes of the Home Standard; and 

b) As a consequence, there is the potential for serious detriment to LB Lewisham’s tenants. 

The regulator will work with LB Lewisham as it seeks to remedy the issues and will continue to consider what further action may need to be taken. 

The issue

LB Lewisham made a self-referral to the regulator in December 2023 as it had identified a failure to meet statutory health and safety requirements in some of its homes. LB Lewisham told us it had not completed a significant number of overdue fire remedial actions and had a high number of repairs not completed within its service timescales. Through our investigation, we learned that a significant proportion of LB Lewisham’s homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) and also found that LB Lewisham did not assess the severity of damp and mould cases using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).

Our investigation

As a registered provider, LB Lewisham 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 DHS.^{[footnote 1]} The Home Standard also requires registered providers to have a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service and to meet all the applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of tenants in their homes. 

In relation to the quality of its homes, LB Lewisham reported that 17% of its homes did not comply with the DHS. However, the council does not have complete data for its properties and is carrying out a stock condition survey of all of its homes so it can develop a plan to address the non-decency.

In respect of fire safety, LB Lewisham has a statutory duty ^{[footnote 2]} to regularly assess the risk of fire and to take precautions to prevent the risk of fire. LB Lewisham had completed fire risk assessments for all blocks that required one. However, our investigations found that more than 5,000 fire remedial actions from fire risk assessments were currently overdue of which more than 200 were high-risk actions.

In respect of repairs, LB Lewisham told us it had over 18,000 work in progress repairs. LB Lewisham has not been meeting its service standards for completing both emergency and non-emergency repairs. Between April and December 2023, fewer than 55% were completed on-time. The average time to complete repairs was significantly above the service standard of 20 days. LB Lewisham has also reported significant wait times for tenants calling its contact centre to report a repair and high rates of abandoned calls as a result. While LB Lewisham has been recording and assessing damp and mould cases, it has not used the HHSRS to assess the severity of cases.

The regulator considered whether LB Lewisham was meeting the required outcomes of parts 1.1 and 1.2 of the Home Standard. We have concluded that LB Lewisham does not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its responsibilities in relation to the quality of its homes, providing a cost-effective repairs service and its statutory health and safety responsibilities. 

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 Lewisham has demonstrated to the regulator that it understands its responsibilities and is completing the work it needs to undertake to meet the requirements of the Home Standard. However, taking into account the seriousness of the issues and the number of tenants potentially affected, the regulator has concluded that LB Lewisham is not meeting the required outcomes of the Home Standard and that there is a risk of serious detriment to tenants as a result. 

Our engagement

LB Lewisham has put in place a programme to rectify these failures, including commissioning a stock condition survey, planning to address non-decency, closer monitoring of progress against all FRA remedial actions and the creation of transformation plans focussed on repairs and complaints. The regulator will therefore not take statutory action at this stage, as it has assurance that the issues are being remedied.

The regulator will work with LB Lewisham as it continues to address the issues which led to this situation. We will continue to keep our use of statutory powers under regular review through our engagement with LB Lewisham. 

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 ↩