The Good Landlord Plan

How we are taking action

We want everyone in Southwark to have decent homes and live in safe, well-maintained homes. That’s why we’ve introduced The Good Landlord Plan, our commitment and clear action plan to deliver on what matters most to our residents – better homes, better estates, better repairs, better customer service, a stronger voice for tenants, and more new council homes.

Read the Good Landlord Plan: Building better lives together

Putting tenants and leaseholders first

At the heart of the Good Landlord Plan are our tenants and leaseholders, whose needs and feedback guide our journey toward better services. This plan is built on our commitment to keep improving. It also sets out to meet the new standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing, and issues raised by the Regulator.

Investing in safer council housing

In addition to enhancing our services, we are actively campaigning for the national changes needed to improve council homes across the country. Over the next three years, we are investing £250 million to improve safety standards in council homes.

We know we have a lot of work to do, but we’re committed to getting it right and we will keep working hard to become the good landlord our residents deserve.

Learn more about the actions we’re taking to be a good landlord.

Better homes

We will invest in improving our homes, making them safer and healthier by:

• improving fire, electrical, and gas
• lift and water safety
• tacking damp and mould
• upgrading old, unreliable heating systems

We will do a full survey of all of our homes and estates to identify the work needed, and prioritise the homes that most need work done.

Better estates

We've listened to your problems about antisocial behaviour, crime, and keeping your estate clean and safe.

We are taking action to:

• improve communal repairs and carry out more thorough monthly estate inspections
• tackle problems with rubbish, fly-tipping, antisocial behaviour and crime - especially with the estates most affected
• communicate more often about what the council is doing

Better repairs

We've been told we need to act faster when dealing with home repairs, especially when dealing with damp and mould.

We will further improve:

• our repairs service, so repairs are done on time and right the first time
• introduce booked time slots for your repair, doing more repairs in one visit and improving our damp and leaks services

The  Repairs Improvement Board, made up of tenants to oversee this work, will hold the council to account so we make good progress.

Better customer services

We've been told you want clear customer service, and to have the option to speak to a human being, when faced with a problem.

We're taking action by:

• improving training for all of our staff so they can better support you
• continuing to improve our call centre and our complaints service so you receive a quicker, better and fairer response
• analysing our complaints data to ensure we learn from our mistakes
• setting up a new Housing Complaints team dedicated to understanding and dealing with the issues important to you 

A stronger voice for tenants

We know you would like more of a say on what happens on your estate. This is how we're taking action:

• increasing the voice of tenants in all housing services, including a new Housing Management Board to oversee the action plan, with tenants on the board so their voice is heard at the top table
• we’ve developed a new Resident Engagement Strategy and will be asking people for their views  
• we will send an annual report to every one of our homes detailing our performance as a landlord

New council homes

Good homes change lives and we're proud to have built more council homes than other councils this past decade. We'll keep building thousands of new council homes in Southwark. 

Here's how we're taking action to meet the housing needs of our residents:

• We know many residents in our council homes are overcrowded or need a different kind of home and we’re building more new council homes, including family sized homes and homes for older people and people with disabilities
• So far, we have built or started construction on over 3,000 council homes and we will continue to build more
• We will update our allocations policy and bidding system to make it fairer and easier to use
• We’re leading a national campaign with more than 100 councils to save council housing, calling for action to bring council housing budgets back from the brink and enable councils to deliver new and better homes, and properly maintain existing homes and bring them up to green and decent standards