'Serious failings' found in city's council housing

Bristol City Council apologised "unreservedly" to residents

"Serious failings" in a city's council housing have been condemned by a regulator as it found Bristol City Council could not show it was meeting carbon monoxide safety requirements for more than 22,000 homes.

The government's Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) also found the council had 3,000 overdue fire safety actions and said "significant improvement" was needed.

The local authority referred itself to the watchdog for a potential breach of its consumer standards when new rules came into force in April.

Bristol City Council (BCC) apologised "unreservedly" to residents and said it was "working hard to put things right quickly".

The RSH report said the council had 1,900 open damp and mould cases and more than 16,000 overdue repairs in its stock of 26,700 homes.

BCC disputed this figure and said it had 11,000 overdue repair cases.

The watchdog found the council did not have up-to-date data relating to the condition of tenants’ homes as more than 80% of surveys were conducted more than five years ago.

It also said the council was unable to show current electrical safety certificates for more than 50% of its properties and the local authority did not have valid communal asbestos surveys for all of its blocks.

The council told RSH it had "low confidence" in its own data management relating to fire safety, the regular reported.

'Very sorry'

Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at RSH, said: “Landlords must provide safe and decent homes for tenants, have an effective complaints process, and put things right when there are problems.

“All landlords need to make sure they deliver the outcomes in our standards and inform us when there are material issues."

Bristol City Council said it was developing a detailed improvement plan to address the failings.

A council spokesperson said: "We accept the findings of the regulator and are very sorry that we have fallen below these standards.

"We are working hard to put things right quickly and improve our arrangements for the maintenance of council owned homes.

"We apologise unreservedly to all our council tenants.

"All tenants should expect us to deliver a high standard of housing and comply with national standards, and we share these expectations."