News / Housing
‘Serious failings’ in state of Bristol council housing
The leader of Bristol City Council has apologised to social housing tenants after a scathing report found there are “serious failings” across their 27,000 properties.
In the damning judgement, the government’s social housing regulator has reported huge backlogs of repairs, thousands of open damp and mould cases and poor record keeping in council-run properties in our city.
In more than 85 per cent of its homes, the council could not tell the regulator if a carbon monoxide alarm was fitted.
is needed now More than ever
Apologising “unreservedly”, the council said national funding issues and the legacy of Covid-19 are partly to blame, but admitted that dealing with the backlogs will take “years” and cost “tens of millions of pounds”.
“Serious failings” have been found in council housing in Bristol by a regulator – photo: Karen Johnson
The judgement came on the same day as the government’s Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) issued similar judgements on Guildford Borough Council, Octavia Housing and Sheffield City Council, giving all four authorities ‘C3’ grading which means they need to make “significant improvements”.
The RSH report focusing on Bristol said the council has over 1,900 open damp and mould cases, with more than 200 of those over one year overdue, and there are around 3,000 outstanding ‘fire actions’.
There are also more than 16,000 overdue repairs, but the council said a figure of 11,000 is more accurate.
The RHS found the council “does not have up-to-date data about the condition of tenants’ homes” as more than 80 per cent of surveys were conducted more than five years ago.
With respect to electrical safety, the council reported it could not provide a current electrical safety certificate for half of its homes.
Today (Tuesday 9 July) we have written to all council tenants to tell them that we have recently referred ourselves to the Regulator of Social Housing. This is because of concerns we have about the maintenance of our council owned homes. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/wcyhoZhCTR
— Bristol City Council (@BristolCouncil) July 9, 2024
Bristol City Council referred itself to the watchdog for a potential breach of its consumer standards when new rules came into force in April.
Council leader Tony Dyer apologised to residents, promising to reassure residents with information on how the council intends to fix the issues.
“We accept the findings of the regulator’s review and have committed to fix the issues we face in the shortest possible time,” said Dyer, who is also the Green councillor for Southville.
“While we accept the failings in our own services, we also acknowledge the national challenge councils face in catching up with changing regulation at a time when funding is scarce.”
Repair backlogs, unresolved damp and mould and poor record keeping are some of the issues that have been found – photo: Betty Woolerton
Barry Parsons, chair of the homes and housing delivery committee, added: “We have not waited for this judgement to begin putting in place the necessary action required to raise our standards.
“Our priority is focusing on any safety issues, which means addressing the backlog of some of the regular checks we must undertake as a landlord.
“We are also undertaking a programme of repairs and refurbishment.
“Our record-keeping is significantly below where it should be and we are addressing this with urgency, to ensure that we are able to provide residents with relevant information about their homes.”
He went on: “Our approach must be one that is informed by the needs of residents living in council-owned homes so we can provide decent and safe homes.”
Main photo: Betty Woolerton
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