Adur District Council has referred itself to the national social housing regulator over the standard of its homes.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is the government agency responsible for ensuring that homes in the sector are being maintained properly and are of a decent standard.
Social housing providers, including local authorities, are required to refer themselves to the regulator if they believe they may not be meeting the national standards.
The Council has reviewed the data it holds about the properties managed by its housing arm, Adur Homes. It has concluded that while many of its properties are of a decent standard, it does not have the evidence to show that all of them are.
As a result, the Council has referred itself to the RSH. The regulator will now investigate how Adur Homes works, what it is doing well or poorly, and what it can do to provide a better service.
Cllr Carson Albury, Adur’s Cabinet Member for Adur Homes and Customer Services, said:
“Many of our tenants and leaseholders live in properties that are of a good standard. But some do not, which is unacceptable - and we know that we need to do more to fix that problem.
“We’re keen to work with the regulator to fix our problems and we welcome the support and extra scrutiny this will bring.
“Everyone living in an Adur Homes property deserves to have a good, safe and secure home, and we are committed to working with the regulator to make this a reality.”
Much of the housing managed by Adur Homes was built more than 50 years ago and needs a lot of investment to bring it up to standard. However, years of rent restrictions imposed by the government means there has been, and continues to be, insufficient funding to pay for the work required in Adur.
Adur Homes will continue to carry out repairs and improvement work on its properties, focusing on prioritising health and safety issues, while the RSH investigates. It has written to all of its tenants and leaseholders explaining the situation, apologising for not having always provided a good service and committing to working hard to do better.
A set of FAQs has also been created and posted on a dedicated webpage at www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/adur-homes/self-referral.
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