70% of high-risk Southwark housing found to have out-of-date smoke alarms
Figures seen by the Liberal Democrats has shown that properties deemed “high risk” in Southwark’s council housing that have been visited this year did not have in-date smoke alarms.
This comes almost a year since the Regulator of Social Housing awarded the Labour-run council a “C3” judgement, the second worst grade available indicating “serious failings”. The regulator’s inspection had revealed that 50% of all properties had no working smoke alarms, and more than half had out of date electrical safety tests.
Since then, the council has supposedly taken a number of steps to improve the quality of its housing and meet the requirements set out by the regulator, but the Liberal Democrats say that despite the spin, things are in fact going backwards.
The council’s programme of improvements has revealed that there are still 60% of homes with out of date domestic electrical safety tests (EICRs), and that in the high-risk homes that have been accessed so far, 70% are without adequate smoke alarms.
In a remarkable admission, the council has also already backtracked on claims made only in July that it would have carried out a full stock condition survey on 40% of its properties by March 2026. In an announcement made yesterday (8th September), Labour’s housing boss admitted that number will now only be half that.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Victor Chamberlain said:
“Despite the expensive spin from this Labour council, its so-called “good landlord plan” is only further evidence of a Labour administration that has lost control of its housing for 15 years.
They’re now having to play catch-up after a decade and a half of neglect – and we’re not just seeing the true cost of that neglect with so many homes without proper fire safety measures, but also already broken promises mere months after they were made.
After being forced by Liberal Democrat Councillors, residents, and the Government’s regulator to buck its ideas up – Labour have suddenly decided they want to be a “good landlord”. Residents will rightly be asking why they’ve been such a bad landlord in the first place!
The answer is that Labour just can’t get a grip on housing – they're London’s worst landlord, and the only way to fix it is to kick them out next May.”