Kensington and Chelsea (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The housing regulator has identified “serious failings” at Kensington and Chelsea Council, raising concerns over management and resident safety standards.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has given the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which includes Grenfell Tower, the second-lowest rating for the condition of its residences.
“There are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed,”
the RSH stated in a report released on Wednesday.
The town hall was praised for its ability to interact with social tenants and for adhering to health and safety regulations.
Only 40% of the council’s properties have had surveys completed in the previous five years, and only 33% of them satisfy “decent homes standards.”
In its report, the RSH said:
“We have concluded that there is a serious failing in Kensington and Chelsea’s delivery of one of the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the stock quality and decency elements of the Safety and Quality Standard.
This is the basis of our C3 grade for Kensington and Chelsea. The inspection found Kensington and Chelsea to be delivering the other requirements in the safety and quality standard, including in relation to health and safety requirements.”
Kensington and Bayswater MP Joe Powell said:
“Eight years after the Grenfell tragedy, it’s shocking that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is still neglecting so many residents in council housing.
The serious failings outlined by the Regulator are yet another wake-up call for the council but will sadly come as no surprise to many tenants.
I urge [the council] to focus on the urgent improvements that I have repeatedly raised with them since being elected last year. All our residents deserve a safe and healthy home”
Kensington and Chelsea Council has taken steps to “mitigate any risks to tenants” and is aiming to achieve full decent homes standards compliance by 2030, the RSH added.
Conservative leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, Elizabeth Campbell, said:
“We are making progress towards our ambition to be the best council for our communities.
Our children’s and adults’ social care services are rated outstanding, and I want to see the same in housing. I know we are not there yet.
Since the Grenfell tragedy we have made safety works in our housing our number one priority, so it is reassuring that the regulator recognises that we are meeting all their safety standards.
We knew that completing building safety works first would impact how quickly we would meet the decent homes standards, but we have a plan to better understand the condition of all our housing by next year and to bring all our residents’ homes up to the housing regulator’s standard for decent homes by 2030.”
What immediate actions is RBKC taking to fix stock conditions?
RBKC is progressing with a full stock condition survey of all its homes including Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards. The completion date for the stock condition surveys is November 2026.
The council is aiming to achieve 100% compliance with the Government’s Decent Homes Standard (DHS) by the year 2030 and are currently committing to a large investment to reduce the amount of non-decency in the housing stock.
For any identified category 1 HHSRS hazards during the stock condition survey immediate actions have been put into place. Repairs and maintenance services are performing effectively with no backlog and they are responding to emergency and urgent repair requests in a timely manner.