Newham Council has unveiled major changes to the way it delivers its housing service for tenants and leaseholders after it received the worst possible grading by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) last year.
Newham was the first social housing landlord to be given the new ‘C4’ grading after RSH found “very serious failings” which included thousands of outstanding repairs and overdue fire safety works by more than 12 months.
In a report published by the regulator on October 16, inspectors found there were 9,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions of which 8,000 were overdue by more than a year – while 4,000 were classed as “high risk”.
Abi Gbago, the council's chief executive, said at the time the council had let tenants down and would address the report’s recommendations that were outlined by inspectors.
Some of the homes had not had an electrical installation inspection in more than 11 years.
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Inspectors said the council had a lack of evidence to show it was meeting the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm requirements and at least 20 per cent of its homes did not meet the Decent Homes Standard.
They went on to say the council’s repairs and maintenance service needed “significant improvement” after it found 5,400 open repairs – of which, at the time of the inspection, 49pc were outside of target dates to complete them.
The council has now launched a housing services improvement programme which sets out a list of actions it plans to take to ensure tenants and leaseholders are living in safe homes.
Blossom Young, cabinet member for housing landlord and tenant experience improvements, said the council is determined to get things right for residents.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I was shocked by what I was reading [in the report] and what the regulator was finding, because clearly lots of what they were identifying was not an acceptable position for our residents.
“It doesn’t give a clear indication at all that we are keeping our residents safe fundamentally, and then all the associated issues with that, that’s not acceptable for the residents of Newham and it’s certainly not acceptable for our council tenants and leaseholders.
“I think the real challenge has been about how we [move] from that position of unacceptability to a position where we can have confidence that our residents are living in safe homes, that they are being treated with respect when they engage with our services and that they’ve got an opportunity to be able to influence them.”
Cllr Young said the council’s new independent Resident Challenge Board, which launched in April, is one way council tenants and leaseholders are better able to provide feedback, scrutinise and challenge the council over the improvements it has pledged to make.
The council’s new care and support team is contacting vulnerable tenants in high-rise blocks to support them with personalised fire risk assessments and fire measures, while monthly block inspections are also being carried out at high-rises to ensure maintenance issues are addressed quickly.
The council says it has reduced the number of open repairs from 5,400 in May of last year to less than 300, as of the end of March 2025, while 85pc of its homes have now had an electrical condition test within 10 years – with the remainder expected to be completed by the end of June.
Cllr Young said while it’s important to clear the backlog of outstanding repairs and overdue actions, the improvements are fundamentally about keeping residents safe.
She said: “We know we got this wrong, we absolutely know we got this wrong – this is an opportunity for us to put this right and we’re already starting to put this right.”
Newham Council owns around 16,000 homes in the borough and manages around 14,000 of them.
The council has created a new housing bulletin and website called Improving Your Homes, which is keeping residents informed about the changes.
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