Southwark Council has approved its Good Landlord Plan and committed to its ambition to become a good landlord for all tenants and leaseholders.
The plan sets out how the council is taking action to address feedback from residents and issues raised by the Regulator of Social Housing, which in November last year gave the council a C3 judgement, identifying “serious failings”.
It is built around six priorities focused on what matters most to residents:
- Better homes – investing £250 million over three years to improve homes including work on fire, electrical, gas, lift and water safety, tackling damp and mould and upgrading old, unreliable and inefficient heating systems
- Better estates – making estates cleaner, safer, and well looked-after places where people feel secure and proud to live
- Better repairs – acting more quickly when dealing with repairs in homes and on damp and mould; and introducing easier ways to get repairs booked online, including bookable time slots
- Better customer service – created a new Housing Complaints Team to help make sure concerns are dealt with correctly and making sure staff get high-quality customer service training
- A stronger voice for residents – making sure people have more of a say on what happens on estates, increasing residents’ voices in all housing services and doing more to listen to views and acting on them
- More new council homes – build more council homes for local people, who need more genuinely affordable housing
Southwark Council is already taking action to deliver on its Good Landlord Plan.
6,300 electrical checks have been carried out and 2,850 smoke alarms installed, in response to issues raised by the Regulator of Social Housing. Work is continuing and checks are due to be completed next year.
Fire hazards in 5,000 homes have been addressed, 55 Repairs Action Days, fixing more than 1,500 issues have been held and 3,000 new council homes have been completed or are under construction.
Cllr Sarah King, Cabinet Member for Council Homes said:
"We want everyone to have a safe, good-quality home and we are committed to becoming a good landlord for all our tenants and leaseholders.
“We’ve listened carefully to our residents and we know that we must listen more and act faster.
“The Good Landlord Plan puts residents at the heart of everything that we do; taking action to create better homes, better estates, better repairs and better customer service.
“Above all, resident safety is our top priority, which is why we’re investing £250 million over the next three years in homes and estates. We know that won’t be enough to bring every home up to the standards people rightly deserve.
“That’s why we are lobbying Government to secure the additional funding needed to improve our 37,000 council homes and to build the new homes our communities need.
“As a landlord to around 125,000 people, we may not always get it right, but this plan means that we’ll be guided by our residents to make decisions that are best for them.
“We are determined to go beyond the basics. We will be reliable, respectful, and proactive, not just in words, but in the homes and services we deliver every day.”
You can read more about the Good Landlord Plan on the council website.