Woking Borough Council: Hundreds of homes lack vital fire safety checks

Woking Borough Council's leader has apologised on behalf of the authority for its failures

Hundreds of council homes in Woking lack vital fire safety checks or carbon monoxide alarms, a watchdog has found.

The Regulator of Social Housing found that more than 400 homes were "overdue high risk remedial actions".

Work on these should have been completed within 24 hours, but some cases were six months overdue.

Woking Borough Council leader Ann-Marie Barker apologised on behalf of the authority for "failing to deliver the quality of service that is expected".

She said: "There is nothing more important than the safety of our residents.

"This regulatory notice is a stark warning that the council has fallen short in its health and safety duty toward tenants on this occasion."

'Serious detriment'

For approximately a quarter of its houses, Woking Borough Council was unable to confirm whether they had smoke detectors installed.

As such, the watchdog found the council had breached the Home Standard with the potential for "serious detriment" to tenants.

Kate Dodsworth, of the Regulator of Social Housing, said the council "failed to meet our consumer standards and need to put things right promptly for tenants".

Councillor Barker added: "Whilst we have much more to do, the council is determined to make the necessary improvements and is implementing a course of actions which will reassure tenants and the regulator."

The council brought the management and maintenance of its social housing back in-house last year and referred itself to the regulators to "fully understand the issues with the standard" of its homes.

The regulator said it will work with Woking Borough Council to remedy the breach and will continue to consider further action.

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