Housing regulator finds Lambeth Council on path to improvement

Lambeth has become the first London local authority landlord to receive a C2 grading from the regulator. The RSH issues gradings from C4 where it has serious concerns about failings, through to C1 where all standards are met.

The inspection, which took place in August this year, also found that further improvements are needed, but the regulator was assured that Lambeth has good plans in place to achieve them.

The RSH came to its finding after a detailed inspection in Lambeth which included reviewing documents and an on-site inspection. A key factor in their inspections is safety, and the grading reflects that in Lambeth 99.7 per cent of council managed homes have fire safety assessments and 98.7 per cent have gas safety checks.

Councillor Danny Adilypour, Lambeth’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing, Investment and New Homes said: “We have been working hard to improve council housing services, and therefore welcome the finding released today by the regulator which found Lambeth is meeting social housing regulatory standards for our tenants.

“This is the highest grading issued so far by the RSH to a London council and reflects that our ongoing work to improve housing services in Lambeth is having an impact. This independent finding is also supported by the data we have collected and improved feedback from residents.

“Despite the progress we’ve made we remain committed to further improvement. Too many of our tenants still experience housing issues, and we are determined to ensure we can best meet the needs of all.

“We know we still have a lot of work to do to improve our delivery of repairs and complaint handling. We’re determined to make improvements so that repairs are delivered quickly and easily and done right the first time around as often as possible.”

Key RSH findings included:

Lambeth is “meeting legal requirements” for health and safety with this being “actively monitored by council senior officers and councillors”

The council has a “suite of strategic, preventative and reactive measures to tackle damp and mould in its homes”

Lambeth showed it is using information on its housing “to inform and deliver planned maintenance in its homes”

Lambeth “deals effectively with anti-social behaviour and hate incidents”

Lambeth “provides mechanisms for tenants to engage with it and scrutinise its performance”.