The Mayor of Newham stated that she is “deeply troubled and sorry” after the Regulator of Social Housing issued its first-ever C4 grading last week. The C4 grading is the lowest possible grade under new consumer standards and indicates “very serious failings”. After a planned inspection, the RSH found 9,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions, 4,000 of which were classified as high risk.
The regulator also found that 6,400 homes had not had an electrical condition test for over a decade.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE blamed “fourteen years of cuts by the previous government”, but also said: “Residents deserve better, and I have made clear that the required improvements must be swift”.
She promised transparency and full implementation of the recommendations, but the RSH declared they have “not yet seen sufficient evidence to assure the regulator of their ability to put matters right” given “[Newham] failed to refer themselves over key issues”. Other failings included that 60% of Newham’s social housing rooms had not had a stock condition survey in the past five years, a lack of evidence that any of the houses met the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm requirements, and that at least 20% of the homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard.
Additionally, there were around 5,400 open repairs, nearly half of these overdue.
Tenant Satisfaction Measure surveys were regularly not completed on time, meaning the RSH found tenants had “very limited opportunities to scrutinise the landlord’s strategies”.
