Newham Council has agreed to spend £18 million on improving its social homes after receiving a C4 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

In October last year, Newham became the first local authority to receive a C4 grading from the RSH – the lowest possible grading – after an inspection revealed a litany of issues, including over 9,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions, and that 40% of its 16,000 homes had not had an electrical condition test for more than 11 years.

On 4 February the council’s cabinet agreed a new procurement process to speed up the delivery of decent homes works, which will include the refurbishment of over 3,000 properties and contracts accelerated to bring 20% of its stock up to the Decent Homes Standard.

The council says procurement will establish four separate contracts – covering the whole of the borough – which will be subject to an external tender process, and it will be inviting suppliers to bid for the contracts.

Councillor Blossom Young, Cabinet Member for Housing Landlord and Tenant Experience, said: “Everyone deserves to live in safe, secure and warm homes.  As a landlord the Council takes its commitments to provide our residents with a decent home seriously. We have an obligation to maintain in the region of 16,000 Council homes, and we must ensure these meet Decent Homes Standard*. We have an ongoing programme of works to make improvements to the quality of these homes.

“As part of our response to the Regulator of Social Housing’s judgement, we need to accelerate our planned programme of delivery to bring more properties up to Decent Homes Standard. To make this happen we need an efficient and effective route to deliver the programme of outstanding works are bringing in external contractors to assist with this.  This approach will not only help to speed up delivery for thousands of residents, but enable the Housing service to focus on other aspects of our improvement works”

The works proposed include upgrades to:

  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Domestic electrical installations
  • Insulation and ventilation
  • Window replacements.

The improvement works will begin this summer and are expected to last for three years.