RSH finds Birmingham City Council in breach of consumer standards

RSH finds Birmingham City Council in breach of consumer standards

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has concluded that Birmingham City Council has breached the consumer standards.

The regulator found that around  23,000 social homes owned by the city do not meet the Decent Homes Standard. There were also a number of serious health and safety issues across thousands of homes, including almost 17,000 overdue asbestos surveys, around 15,500 late electrical safety inspections and more than 1,000 fire risk assessments that were overdue, mainly for low-rise housing blocks.

RSH also found significant failures with how the council handles its tenants’ complaints, with more than 1,000 overdue responses.

Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation at RSH, said: "Birmingham City Council has failed thousands of tenants and it needs to act now to put things right. It is unacceptable that so many of its tenants are living in non-decent homes, and that thousands of health and safety surveys haven’t been completed. The council also needs to improve the way it handles its tenants’ complaints.

"We will continue to monitor the council’s progress while it fixes the problems we found through our investigation."

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