Harlow Council has been criticised by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) for failing to carry out thousands of fire risk assessments.
An investigation by the RSH found that the council had carried out fire risk assessments for only 20% of its 9,100 social housing homes.
The regulator also found that the council had over 500 high risk fire safety remedial actions and a further 1,500 medium risk actions overdue.
RSH has given the landlord a C3 grade, which means there are serious failings and it needs to make significant improvements.
Kate Dodsworth, chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH, said: ‘It is unacceptable that Harlow Council has failed to meet fire safety requirements. Providing safe, decent homes for tenants begins with robust data, and this must include fire risk assessments for every home that needs one.’
Council leader Dan Swords commented: 'On nearly every tenant satisfaction measure Harlow performed well, although we are taking clear steps to drive improvement across the board. However, on one measure – the number of fire risk assessments that had been carried out in our flat blocks – we performed very badly. As a result of this shortcoming, the Regulator has awarded Harlow, like many other councils, a C3 grading. This does not mean Harlow’s flat blocks are unsafe, there is no ACM (Grenfell style-cladding) or anything of the like and tenants should be reassured of that.
'This historic issue has not been dealt with well or quickly enough by the council. For several years, we have not carried out enough fire risk assessments and that is why this moment will be a very clear turning point.
'We are already working closely with the Regulator to make specific improvements against these new requirements, and we are making rapid progress to that effect.'
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