The report followed the Labour Council’s refusal to commit to targets laid out in a Conservative motion on the 10th of January. Cllr Ken Wood (Con, Walmley & Minworth) Shadow Cabinet member for Housing & Homelessness, & Cllr Adrian Delaney (Con, Rubery & Rednal) brought forward the motion which included declarations that everyone has a right to live in a decent home, and a target for 99% of the City’s social housing to meet the “decent homes” standard by 2026 along with a bi-annual report on progress made towards this. The motion also included a “no-confidence” clause. The Conservative group also supported an amendment by the Liberal Democrats to declare a housing crisis, but opposed Labour councillors’ amendment removing both targets in a blatant move to avoid being held accountable in the coming years.
The report found that residents had to make multiple reports of repairs needed over a sustained period despite the City’s policy which includes timescales for repairs based on the severity of the case. The report stated that “these timescales were meaningless”. Due to a lack of progress reports on individual cases & poor communication “…the Landlord [believes] repairs were resolved despite reports and evidence to the contrary”. This led to residents being forced to live in homes in desperate need of repair for years – “In one case the resident made repeated disrepair claims for over 10 years”.
When in discussion with another resident over the compensation the Labour-led Council owed for failing to meet their responsibilities as a landlord, the Council “initially refused to pay a financial remedy direct to the resident, instead wishing to offset it against arrears”.
Despite the catalogue of failings, “there was limited evidence of learning”, and the report said, “Strong and effective leadership and governance is required to oversee service improvement. The Ombudsman has serious concerns about the adequacy of the landlord’s plans to deliver this successfully”. We contend these failings amount to systemic failings.
The report concludes “The weakness in policies, repeated failings & common points of service failure, has led the Ombudsman to conclude its findings are indicative of wider failure in repairs, record keeping, complaint handling, and compensation. Whether wider service failures constitute a “systemic failing” by a landlord is a matter for the Regulator of Social Housing to determine.
“…the failings identified cut across every aspect of a resident’s interaction with the landlord… the landlord’s inability to channel the learning from complaints and put in place appropriate governance and learning meant the same mistakes were repeated and there was little chance of service improvement.
“The landlord has accepted responsibility…The Ombudsman continues to see cases that show poor repair handling, record keeping and complaint handling.”
Speaking recently, Cllr Ken Wood said, “It really is time for some self-reflection in the Labour Administration. They need to ask themselves “would they tolerate such poor and inadequate service if it was they who were sitting waiting to get repairs done for 10 years?” Our tenants deserve a service of the highest standard, they should not be treated as second-class citizens whose quality of life is not important.
“These examples are exactly why we brought our motion on housing to the most recent full council meeting, a motion that called for the improvements in service our tenants deserve. It’s a shame therefore that Labour members all towed the party line and voted against taking responsibility, despite evidence that there was sympathy for our drive to improve things for our tenants. The Housing Ombudsman has said that he has concerns about the adequacy of the Council’s plans to tackle what must surely amount to systemic failures in the Council’s approach to repairing and maintaining Council housing stock. We maintain that we have no confidence whatsoever in the Labour Administration's ability to improve the mess they have made. History shows us a pattern of Labours failures in housing and we fear it will be no different this time around.”
Birmingham Local Conservatives will continue to have no confidence in the Labour-led Council’s ability to rectify the housing crisis in Birmingham until the Council commits to a target of 99% of all City housing stock meeting the “decent homes” standard by 2026 and agree to bring forward a progress report every 6 months. Labour must also satisfy the Housing Ombudsman that sufficient learning is taking place, and improvements are being made. Until they meet these criteria, we will continue to call for no-confidence votes in the Labour Administration. Avoiding being held accountable by refusing to commit to targets, and calling cases as recent as last year – just a month ago – “historic” is totally unacceptable.
