Housing estate board could face High Court action

The management board of a south London housing estate has been told it will face legal action if it does not start working with residents.

Occupants of the Loughborough Estate near Brixton said they had been dealing with severe health and safety risks, including sewage leaks, damp, mould and flooding in their homes for years.

They claimed the problems were the result of years of financial mismanagement by Loughborough Estate Management Board (LEMB), a Tenant Management Organisation, and said there had been limited support from Lambeth Council.

The LEMB was contacted for comment by BBC London and did not respond.

The LEMB has a contract with the council and receives a financial allowance for building maintenance.

Following an audit in December, the council referred LEMB to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which issued a warning notice to LEMB for failure to file audited accounts for the last financial year.

Lambeth Council said that it would launch High Court action if LEMB did not fulfil its democratic obligations to residents.

Residents told BBC London strong council action should have been taken years ago.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said they had been living in a "Grenfell-style twilight zone", with no accountability while residents suffered.

Another, Anastasia Wambui - who works in hospitality - is sofa surfing while she waits to be rehoused after her two-bedroom flat on the estate was declared unsafe by LEMB.

She had been living in a ground floor flat on the estate with her mother for more than a decade.

Her mother has severe diabetes, chronic gastric problems and is visually impaired, and was recently admitted to hospital.

Anastasia said for the past four years the flat had "severe damp and mould".

"There's sewage from an upstairs flat leaking into the kitchen because an outside pipe has not been fixed," she added.

She said both of the women had been sleeping on sofas in the living room due to damp and mould in the bedrooms, with Anastasia adding it had been "becoming hard to breathe".

She told BBC London she had complained countless times to LEMB and was regularly informed there was "no record" of the issues she had raised.

"It just feels like you're being played around," she said.

LEMB was established as a Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) in 1995. It manages approximately 1,200 homes on the Loughborough Estate for both social tenants and leaseholders.

Lambeth Council is the landlord of the estate and has a legal duty to monitor and oversee the TMO. The council also carries out external renovation work.

LEMB said on its website that it was "committed to making sure your home is in a good state of repair" and aimed to carry out regular day-to-day maintenance.

Jamie Gildea is part of Loughborough Voices, a group of 200 residents calling for the LEMB to go.

She showed BBC London where mattresses, litter and junk dumped on the estate had not been collected, and two community centres she said were permanently closed to residents.

Gildea said Lambeth Council should have listened to residents sooner.

"Only recently did we get any acknowledgement that what we were saying and our experiences are true," she said.

"Our MP has been helpful but Lambeth Council have been astoundingly useless. They have left us here to rot.

"We're Lambeth residents and Lambeth are continually acting like they are not responsible for us."

Loughborough Voices spokesperson Sakky Barnor said: "LEMB have been mismanaging our estate for over five years.

"We have tried through all other mechanisms to change the management, we've tried to get on the board. They don't hold in-person meetings. They have no mandate and we want them out."

Gildea said residents also had fire safety concerns.

Last month, there was a fire in Kettleby House, an 11-storey block, where 25 people were evacuated and four children were hospitalised.

"LEMB were nowhere to be seen." Gildea said. "They didn't contact anyone, they didn't open the community centre, they weren't here.

"It was 08:00 or 09:00 - office hours."

Barnor added: "The buildings aren't being maintained so there is a lot of concern around fire safety. People are scared, they want to live in safe homes.

"We welcome any action from Lambeth Council. We really want them to start holding LEMB to account but we also feel that this has come far too late."

The BBC understands in November 2025 letters were sent to each resident from LEMB regarding allegations some residents had made.

LEMB said Loughborough Voices were being "militant" and "disruptive".

LEMB also claimed the estate was "in a desperate situation orchestrated by Lambeth Council, who are bent on getting their hands on our estate".

In January 2026, residents were invited by LEMB to an online AGM held last month.

Isaiah Springer grew up on the estate and is now a youth worker. He said despite the issues with LEMB, there had always been a "vibrant community spirit".

He added: "But I see a lot of different things on estates that aren't acceptable. Because it happens so much, it's become normalised.

"We have a management board that have a budget for these things and they're not using it to help us make the estate more presentable. It is such a shame."

Lambeth Council said it had been "heavily constrained by current TMO legislation" and had written to the government calling for "urgent reform" of the law.

The council said it had been "actively attempting to engage with LEMB [for] some time now", and had issued a "final warning requiring LMB to take immediate action to resolve these issues, otherwise we will take further legal action".

It added: "We're using every route we have available now to support residents and encourage LEMB to act in a way that improves the estate."

A spokesperson for the National Federation of TMOs said they expected all members to act in accordance with their management agreement rules.

The Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government said the government had launched a review of the Right to Manage and local authorities' oversight of delegated management organisations.

It said it was part of the government response to the Grenfell inquiry.

"We are aware of the situation in Lambeth and are talking to the council about their next steps and the broader issues highlighted by this case," a government spokesperson said.

"We want all residents to have confidence in the quality of housing services, whoever provides them."

The BBC reached out to LEMB but they did not respond to the BBC's request for comment. However, on their website they outlined their commitment to residents and their homes.

"We are committed to making sure your home is in a good state of repair and we aim to carry out regular day to day maintenance to make sure we fulfil our repairs obligation. Please note that Lambeth Council is responsible for maintaining the external structure.

"Both the board and the housing office work very closely with LEMB residents, stakeholders and partners like Lambeth Council to understand and respond to local needs thus helping to create a successful and resilient local community."

They also said they "go beyond the core of duty and bureaucratic traditional housing provision" and "make sure everyone living on the estate lives a safe, quality, peaceable and enjoyable life".

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