THE REGULATOR for Social Housing (RSH) found that South Kesteven District Council had ‘not been meeting the necessary standards’ for fire safety, electrical safety and asbestos in its properties.
Grantham Journal reported on the RSH report into the council, in which it found that the council ‘has been failing to follow’ fire safety regulations on council houses it provides ‘for thousands of people’. This, the report added, mean it had ‘not been meeting the necessary standards it sets out’ for electrical, fire safety and asbestos checks, and the RSH outlined a number of ‘key areas’ in which the council fails in both safety processes and recordkeeping for its homes.
These included that fire risk assessments that should have been undertaken annually ‘have not been completed since 2017, while fire alarm testing had not been carried out in sheltered accommodation or buildings with communal areas. In turn, fire extinguishers and emergency lighting ‘had not been checked recently enough’, while electrical testing ‘has not been carried out this year’, which the news outlet notes only adds ‘to the potential risk of fires breaking out’.
With 6,000 homes owned by the council, it has sent letters to residents about a housing audit it undertook as a result of the RSH report, which invites ‘those who are worried about the safety of their own home’ to get in touch. Council chief executive Karen Bradford wrote in the letter: ‘As a local authority and social housing landlord, our immediate priority is and always will be our tenants.
‘Therefore, we commissioned an independent audit and are taking direct action to address the areas highlighted in the report. I am sorry that in some areas, we have fallen below the standards expected of us and I would like to reassure our tenants that we are working hard to put things right. Throughout this process, we will continue working closely with the [RSH].’
In response to the report and audit, councillor Phil Dilks said: ‘I’m not saying we could have had another Grenfell Tower situation on our hands, but the council has been failing residents on key issues such as fire safety. If I was renting out a property and didn’t meet the fire regulations or get a certificate for the boiler then I would expect to be sued by the tenant and prosecuted by the council. We have the situation where the council itself hasn’t carried out these sorts of checks.’