Major works scandals just the tip of the iceberg, say “horrified” councillors

The long-awaited investigations into the major works scandals at three estates came to Southwark's housing scrutiny commission last night, which saw residents and councillors tear into the council’s repeated failure to stem systemic incompetence, leading to a£6 million overspend across 3 major works projects. 

The reports revealed that 6 figure sums were being signed off outside of normal procurement processes, relationships between TRAs and the council had totally broken down, and some works that had been charged for could not be verified to have happened. Further independent surveys commissioned by leaseholders allegedly could only identify 11% of works charged for to have actually taken place on the Devon Mansions estate, which when put directly to him, the director of housing “did not accept”. 

Whilst neither the internal nor external investigations found any evidence of fraud, due to the questions raised in them, the commission recommended that specific fraud investigations nonetheless take place. 

As council officers repeated apologies, echoed in the written submission from the former Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Leader who did not attend the meeting, residents shouted out that they “do not accept the apology”.  

Cllr Jane Salmon, who sits as a Liberal Democrat member of the housing scrutiny sub-commission, said she was “horrified” at the reports, which she said show that “officers stopped caring”.  

Cllr Emily Tester, who is vice-chair of the commission, also pointed out that there are many other estates that deserve equal scrutiny, including the Silverlock Estate, Manor Estate, and Arica House estates, where the pattern of ignoring residents about delays, shoddy works, and overspends continues to be a problem. The Liberal Democrats are calling for similar investigations to be carried out into these estates so that any further overspends and unacceptably poor works can be rectified.  

In a move which the Lib Dems are saying represents Labour marking its own homework, the commission has decided to refer the reports up to Cabinet – the very same body that failed to get a grip on the problem in the first place. Cllr Tester repeatedly requested that the original committee that commissioned these reports have a chance to discuss them, given that the full reports run to over 200 pages and contain collectively over 50 recommendations – which the housing commission was unable to fully digest and discuss in the time available. 

The Liberal Democrats will formally request that these reports are seen by OSC, in order for  further recommendations to be made, and further scrutiny and accountability can be applied. 

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson and Vice-Chair of the Housing Scrutiny sub-commission Cllr Emily Tester said:  

“We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg of how far the rot in Southwark Labour’s housing department extends. There are at least three more estates that have had equally troubling major works on them, but the council is choosing to ignore them.  

We’re calling for further investigations into the Arica House major works that overspent by at least a million pounds, so that those residents too can get answers and accountability.  

Even with everything that was exposed last night, in just a few hours the housing sub-commission only scratched the surface of what went wrong on these estates. We need more time so that full scrutiny can happen, and so that those who have failed tenants and leaseholders can be held to account. 

Unfortunately, Labour members opted to let our Labour cabinet who are responsible for these scandals mark their own homework again. Tenants and leaseholders have lost all trust in processes that should exist to protect them, and it’s clear that absolutely nothing will change under this Labour administration.”