Damp and mould failings in unfit council houses

A council has hundreds of unfit homes and a damp and mould policy that does not meet legal requirements, watchdogs say.

The Regulator of Social Housing report said it was unconvinced Runnymede Borough Council in Surrey had appropriate oversight and scrutiny of its repairs, damp and mould, or disrepair claims.

The report said it failed as a landlord and in how it set out rent standards and added that the council had to carry out fundamental changes to improve the lives of its tenants.

Mike Smith, who chairs the council's housing committee, said it was "committed to achieving full compliance with the Decent Homes Standard in this coming financial year" and was ahead of target.

Watchdogs, who said they found "very serious failings" with the authority, added they had limited assurance the council was treating tenants fairly and with respect.

The report said the council had been given the lowest possible score of a C4 grade.

The council, which owns about 2,830 social housing homes, says the report mirrors its own improvement plan as it sets about addressing historic issues with its housing stock.

It said since 2021 it had spent £24m to carry out 7,827 upgrades on top of standard repairs and health and safety checks.

As part of its next budget £10.2m is also earmarked for investment in its housing stock.

Regulators said although the council indicated a willingness to address the failings, and was taking action in some areas, they had not seen evidence it fully understood the potential risks to tenants.

Regulators found inadequate monitoring and reporting, with almost 250 previously unknown hazards identified as a direct result of their inspection, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

They also found no assurance remedial actions were being fully reported for every area of health and safety, including more than 300 overdue fire remedial actions.

The council's handling of resident issues was also flagged, despite the authority having three tenants' groups, with regulators unable to find any evidence of meaningful engagement.

The report said evidence that the council's approach to ensuring complaints were addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly was also severely lacking.

Runnymede, they said, was consistently failing to meet target response times for complaints.

Smith said: "Tenants can be reassured of our commitment to improving our housing stock and tenant experience."

He added that the council was due to complete a whole stock survey by the end of March and had agreed to take on more staff to support its team.

"A significant part of the judgement relates to rent, which was a historic item where we self-referred to the regulator ahead of any knowledge of an impending inspection," he added.

"Having commissioned third party assurance, we identified those impacted by the issue and financially made good on that original error."

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