Fire risk breaches found in city's social housing

Portsmouth councillor Darren Sanders said the fire issues were being remedied

A council has breached housing standards for fire and electrical safety, a regulator has said.

Portsmouth City Council had a backlog of "high risk" fire safety tasks, the government's Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) found.

It gave the authority a C3 rating, indicating "serious failings", for a range of housing issues that also included incomplete records and a lack of clarity over repairs.

The council said tenants were not at risk and it was outperforming many other local authorities.

Portsmouth City Council referred itself for inspection after concerns emerged over fire safety in August 2024, the RSH said.

The regulator's report said the council had identified "more than 1,000 outstanding fire remedial actions, of which a small number were high risk".

It added: "Portsmouth CC reported that over 85% of its homes have not had an electrical condition test for over five years, a number of which are located in high-risk communal blocks."

The council fitted sprinklers in its Handsworth House tower block after a flat fire in 2016

Councillor Darren Sanders, in charge of housing, said the rating did not mean that flats or blocks were unsafe.

He said the "high risk" fire actions included "things like delays in upgrading or replacing existing working fire doors".

The deputy council leader said only two to three dozen such actions were overdue, out of 17,000 properties.

He added: "Although we accept the judgement... it's a shorter list [of faults] than other authorities."

Since it began a new inspection regime in April 2024, the regulator has issued bottom C4 ratings to councils in Castle Point and Newham.

Seventeen local authorities have been given C3 ratings, 10 have been awarded a C2 grade and only one - Barnsley - achieved the top C1 standard.