The Regulator of Social Housing has today (May 24th, 2023) found Birmingham City Council has breached consumer standards and neglected its duty to ensure the safety of tenants. The regulator has confirmed that around 23,000 homes owned by Birmingham City Council do not even meet decent homes standards.
The regulator has also found a series of damning failures at Labour-run Birmingham City Council including almost 17,000 overdue asbestos surveys, around 15500 late electrical safety inspections and more than 1000 overdue fire risk assessments. This has left thousands of tenants potentially at risk of serious harm.
The regulator has also discovered more than 1000 overdue responses to housing complaints and that the Council did not value tenants’ needs.
All this is a stark change from just 12 years ago when under the then Conservative-led Council Birmingham had improved the housing stock so that 99% of homes met decent homes standards.
Leader of the Opposition, & Birmingham Local Conservatives, Cllr Robert Alden (Con, Erdington) said "The level of neglect by the Labour administration, exposed by the regulator’s report is staggering. The well-being and safety of tenants should be of the utmost concern but instead this 'dysfunctional' Council has allowed thousands of people to be placed potentially at harm. Over the last few years, the press has reported about children hospitalised due to mould, families forced to live among rats and raw sewage, yet the Council have failed to act".
Cllr Alden added "No electrical safety checks, no fire risk assessments, damp, mould, repairs not carried out all while rents rocket - this is the damning record of Labours decade of failure; tens of thousands of residents left with potentially unsafe accommodation".
Deputy Leader of Birmingham Local Conservatives, Cllr Ewan Mackey (Con, Sutton Roughley) said "How has the Labour Party responded to this decade-long failure in Birmingham? They have just promoted the cabinet members responsible for Housing and for Social Justice to become Deputy Leader and Leader of Birmingham City Council. Labour rewarding them for their failure while the Council tenants of Birmingham suffer poor conditions and are put at risk of serious harm. Yet again the Council is living up to its reputation as Birmingham’s biggest slum landlord".
