Council failing to manage home fire risks – report

Tandridge District Council last carried out condition surveys of its housing stock nine years ago

A council in Surrey must make "fundamental changes" to its housing service or risk enforcement action, a regulator has warned.

Tandridge District Council (TDC) has been given the lowest possible grade after a September inspection by the Regulator for Social Housing found "very serious failings" within its housing department.

Ahead of the report, the authority said it had launched a major overhaul.

However, the regulator said it had seen "limited evidence" that the council "fully understands the scale and breadth of the issues".

According to the report, the council last carried out condition surveys of its housing stock nine years ago and "does not hold records from this work".

The authority – which has 2,400 homes – could not prove complaints were handled "fairly, effectively and promptly", the inspection found.

Inspectors said they were not convinced that the council was meeting legal health and safety requirements and could not show it was "adequately managing and mitigating fire safety risks".

'Below expected standards'

More than 1,000 issues identified in fire risk assessments were overdue, according to the report, and the council self-reported 400 properties were overdue an electrical safety condition check.

The authority could not prove its services were accessible or that it was working to deter and tackle hate incidents in neighbourhoods, the report added.

The regulator added that it would not use its enforcement powers at this stage, but it would keep it "under review" and expected the council to "urgently develop a comprehensive improvement plan".

The council's chief of regulatory engagement, Kate Dodsworth, said: "We cannot accept tenants' safety and wellbeing being put at risk and we will be engaging intensively with the council as it puts things right."

Jeremy Pursehouse, chairman of TDC's housing committee, told the BBC that officials had to accept the findings but that the council had "put stuff into place since they wrote that".

The council said it would commission a new condition survey by November, and overdue electrical checks had been completed since the inspection.

The housing department was "absolutely determined" to get the rating changed and could do so in "about six to 12 months", Pursehouse added.