Newham Council has expressed support for a major housing recovery plan after receiving the lowest grading from the Regulator of Social Housing’s 2024 inspection.
The RSH’s new consumer standards for social housing, introduced on 1 April 2024, aimed to improve the lives of tenants by ensuring safe, quality homes and services through regular inspections of larger landlords to ensure they are held to account.
The Borough of Newham received the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) first C4 grading under these standards following an inspection in October last year.
The RSH’s judgement said: “Our judgement is that there are very serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards.
“The landlord must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered.”
Additionally, the RSH pledged to continue focussing on the financial viability and governance of housing associations as part of its integrated regulation.
A summary of the RSH’s findings detailed serious failings across numerous housing standards in Newham, including electrical testing and fire safety.
It was estimated 40% of council homes had gone without an electrical condition check in over 11 years, as well as 9,000 fire safety issues which were identified but never fixed.
Additionally, at least 20% of homes failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard, with repair cases nearly 49% overdue beyond completion dates.
An RSH spokesperson said: “Our inspection found a number of very serious failings and we expect the landlord to act quickly to put things right as soon as possible for tenants, especially where there are health and safety risks.
“We will continue to engage intensively with the council while these issues are rectified.”
In February of this year, it was announced Newham Council agreed to an £18million scheme to improve existing homes under their established Decent Homes Plan, forming part of the borough’s response to the C4 grading.
This agreement was expected to speed up work on over 3,400 homes, focussing on bricks-and-mortar upgrades to bring the borough’s stock back up to acceptable standards.
The broader two-year recovery Improving Your Homes plan was later announced by the council on 13 May, which targets staff culture and tenant empowerment after these areas were overlooked in previous strategies.
Newham Council’s cabinet expressed support for the plan on 17 June and it was claimed the borough was making significant progress following the poor grade from the RSH.
This support comes soon after the 2025 Spending Review, which detailed a £39billion investment into social and affordable housing between 2026 and 2036.
Newham Council were contacted for comment.
Featured image credit: Ben Allan via Unsplash.
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