The Regulator of Social Housing has found the London Borough of Redbridge to have breached the Home Standard, just a month after a similar finding against London Borough of Greenwich.

Following a self-referral, RSH concluded that the council failed to meet statutory health and safety requirements across thousands of its homes. This included checks for fire, electrical, asbestos and water safety and therefore there was the “potential for serious detriment” for residents. The council has started to put in place a programme to rectify these issues.

In respect of fire safety, the regulator found that the council “had more than 3,000 overdue remedial actions in relation to fire door replacements” and were unable to say when doors would be installed or how long the actions had been overdue.

With regards to electrical safety, LB Redbridge reported that “almost 200 communal areas and 2,000 domestic properties did not have a current electrical condition report.”

For asbestos safety, LB Redbridge “had not assessed whether over 450 communal areas required asbestos surveys” and there were more than 160 residential blocks without current risk assessments for water safety.

Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation at RSH, said: “We welcome the London Borough of Redbridge’s self-referral, which recognises that its failure to meet health and safety requirements has put tenants at potential risk.

“We expect the council to put things right for tenants and return to compliance with our standards, and we will be monitoring them closely as they do this.”

Also being released today, the regulator has found that Beyond Housing has not complied with the Rent Standard, overcharging residents over £2.89m by “incorrectly classifying units of general needs accommodation as intermediate rent” after the merger between Yorkshire Coast Homes and Coast & Country Housing.

In the judgement, the RSH says: “Once the issues were uncovered by Beyond, it promptly reported the matter to the regulator and developed a wide-ranging action plan.”

The key actions include:

• establishing the level of overcharging for each affected tenant including former tenants and the estates of deceased tenants;
• commencing a programme of reimbursements to tenants, local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions, as appropriate;
• resetting the rents in question to the correct levels and improving audit and validation of rent setting and annual rent charges; and
• ensuring arrangements are in place to gain assurance on rents across all of its homes.

Another downgrade was for South Yorkshire Housing Association, who were downgraded from G1 to G2.

After an In-Depth Assessment, the regulator said it “concluded that it needs to improve aspects of its governance arrangements to ensure continued compliance.”

Expanding on this, the judgements says: “The IDA has found weaknesses in the board’s oversight of risk management, strategic and financial planning, and strategic plan delivery.

“Detailed monitoring of landlord health and safety and building safety risks is in place at officer level however board reporting does not allow for adequate oversight and challenge.

“A previous significant issue was not escalated to the board, or the regulator, in a timely and effective way. SYHA had already planned to review its risk management framework, and this should consider clearer mapping of the level of assurance the board receives to risk prioritisation.

“When approving the business plan the board has not had sufficient or timely information to fully consider alignment with its risk appetite and any potential impact on SYHA’s strategy. In the context of increasing pressures reducing SYHA’s financial resilience, the quality of stress testing and mitigation work needs strengthening.

“Since approving the current business plan SYHA has agreed a revised business planning timetable and is undertaking additional work on modelling and mitigations. The board needs to continue this work at pace to inform strategic decision-making.

“Performance reporting covers only a limited range of targets, restricting the ability of the board and other stakeholders to assess strategic performance. The board is focused on the successful delivery of SYHA’s strategy however it cannot fully evidence delivery of priorities.

“The board has a reasonable range of skills and experience aligned to the services it delivers. However, SYHA needs to assure itself that board composition is appropriate in the context of current and future financial challenges. There is insufficient evidence that structured board skills appraisal informs recruitment and succession planning. There has not been an external board effectiveness review for several years.”

Elsewhere, Trent & Dove Housing, Bromford, and Pioneer Housing Group all retained G1/V1 ratings.