Homes survey will ensure that all our social housing meets the highest standards

The regulations for housing providers are changing, introducing new standards that councils need to meet. Ashford Borough Council has been working to make sure we are ready for these new standards and one of these measures was to commission an independent, external specialist, the Housing Quality Network (HQN), to carry out a comprehensive review of our housing services.

This included the council’s building safety compliance across our stock of 5,000-plus homes. The HQN review focused on the so-called Big Six areas of building safety compliance – gas, electricity, asbestos, fire safety, water safety and lift safety.

The review has highlighted several key areas that need be strengthened, while also shining a light on areas where we are performing well – for example, where gas is provided to the home a gas safety certificate is required at each property and we are 100% compliant.

The audit found that our property management framework, which should provide assurance that compliance and building safety are being delivered and managed, are not as effective as it should be. Record keeping and reporting mechanisms are not providing a clear audit trail of routine or follow-up maintenance being carried out.

This in turn, means that we are not able to demonstrate that we are meeting our legal and obligatory requirements.

It was also highlighted that to demonstrate our Decent Homes Standard we need to conduct a full stock condition survey. This was in hand as part of the work we were already carrying out and we can report that this is about to get underway. This means that every council home will be inspected to assess the maintenance requirements of that home. The visit may also pick up on any unreported repairs.

The four new standards that councils need to meet are the Safety & Quality standard, Transparency, Influence & Accountability standard, Neighbourhood standard and Tenancy standard.

Taking positive action

In response to the review, the Regulator of Social Housing will expect us to self-refer ourselves. We are informing the Regulator that the council is preparing to introduce a range of measures aimed at resolving the shortcomings highlighted by HQN. In working closely with the Regulator, we will be demonstrating that we fully understand the importance of complying with all aspects of our health and safety obligations, and outlining the steps we are taking to address this.

A robust action plan is being created which covers the recommendations provided by HQN within a challenging timeframe. Work has already started in terms of delivery – internal systems are being urgently reviewed and our stock condition survey will play an important role in gathering data.

We are writing to all our tenants and leaseholders, to reassure them that their safety and wellbeing is our priority, and explaining what improvements are planned and signposting them to a dedicated webpage for more information. This page will be kept updated with news of progress made.

Cabinet and group leaders have been briefed and they have confirmed their cross-party support for the delivery of this action plan.

We are clear about the steps we need to take to address the outstanding issues and ensure 100% compliance moving forward and to demonstrate this to our tenants and leaseholders, members, staff, the wider public and the Regulator of Social Housing.

We will be preparing a full report to Cabinet and our intention is to recommend the introduction of an Asset Compliance Board that we envisage will report into the Audit Committee on a regular basis. This will ensure there is accountability during the process and monitoring of the action plan to ensure delivery.