Newham Council has apologised to council tenants after the Regulator of Social Housing found serious failings in safety standards at its properties.

Ironically, the London borough comes down hard on private landlords and is one of the capital’s keenest collector of fines. It was involved in a recent landmark victory involving a rogue landlord, resulting in fines exceeding £100,000, while earlier this year it issued its first ever banning order to a landlord letting out an unlicensed property.

The regulator’s inspection found that more than 40% of Newham’s homes had not had an electrical condition test for more than 11 years, as well as more than 9,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions, of which at least 8,000 were overdue by more than 12 months.

The borough, which is based in swanky offices within Docklands (pictured) did not meet its requirements around maintenance of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and inspectors reported that it did not have up-to-date stock condition information on the majority of its homes, with about 5,400 open repairs at the time of the inspection.

'Must do better'

Chief executive Abi Gbago accepted that the authority had let its tenants down. “We unequivocally accept all the recommendations in the report,” she says. “They will be addressed in the programme of improvement already well under way.

“We can and must do better for our tenants. We have long been prioritising actions aimed at keeping residents safe, making many improvements even since the inspectors visited us in May.”

Newham has already taken action on most issues identified since the inspection. It has put plans in place to complete all overdue remedial fire risk actions, offered tenants appointments if they have not had an electrical installation inspection for more than ten years, reduced the number of repairs past their target date and ensured there are records to show annual carbon monoxide and smoke alarms testing.