Bristol Council apologises to tenants over housing failures
Bristol Council has referred itself to the regulator of Social Housing following a highly critical report.
This follows the decision by the council to self-refer to the Regulator in April 2024 for potential non-compliance with the Safety and Quality Standard and other matters in relation to the authority’s duty as landlord.
The council’s decision to take this action was in response to an internal review of the arrangements in place to meet national standards of quality and safety which found shortfalls in the systems in place.
The Regulator has now completed its review of the council’s arrangements following analysis of the information provided by the authority.
A judgement has been published confirming the Regulator’s view that the council does not currently meet the levels required and must do more to improve how council owned homes are looked after.
Tony Dyer, leader of Bristol City Council, said: “We apologise to all council tenants and those who live in our council owned homes.
“All residents should expect us, as a landlord, to deliver a high standard of housing and comply with national requirements, and we share these expectations. We recognise that this news will likely cause concern for some residents. We do not wish for anyone to worry but recognise that better communication and further information is needed to ensure all residents are clear on what this judgement means and how we intend to fix the issues we face.
“Both our own internal assessment and that of the Regulator sets out clearly where the gaps in our arrangements exist and provide a blueprint for improvement. We accept the findings of the Regulator’s review and have committed to fix the issues we face in the shortest possible time.
“Whilst 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.
“Our position is not unique, and we join a number of other local authorities who have found their arrangements to be inadequate to meet the necessary national standards for social housing. This offers us the opportunity to learn from others and take on board the approaches they have developed to deliver decent, safe homes to a high level of regulatory compliance. It also indicates that across the country, a far higher awareness of the need for consistent and dependable housing safety is underway, and we agree that this is long overdue.
“As we look internally at improving our arrangements to meeting a high level of regulatory compliance, we also look outwards, towards government, with an open hand to work together to deliver decent homes for social tenants.”
Barry Parsons, Chair of the Homes and Housing Delivery Committee, said: “Our role as a social landlord is to ensure we’re providing people with safe and decent homes that are places of sanctuary, that nurture and protect people’s wellbeing. It’s clear that we’re not hitting a high enough standard in this role and for that we apologise to all council tenants and those who live in our council owned homes.
“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.
“We have written to all residents living in council homes to share this update with them. Throughout this process we will maintain regular communication with residents and also expand on the opportunities available for people to speak with us directly to share their views. 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.”
Bristol has been given the grading ‘C3’, which means that there are serious failings in how the council is delivering against the consumer standards outcomes and significant improvement is needed. The standards against which the council has been judged came into effect from 1 April 2024.
Officers continue to work with the Regulator to develop a detailed improvement plan to address regulatory compliance failings. This work includes introducing new processes for reporting on compliance to ensure greater monitoring of council performance against the national standards. This improvement plan will prioritise works required to reduce backlogs of necessary repairs and surveys, prioritising those that ensure any safety issues are addressed first.
