Property-a-holics

Since I started following a few people on Twitter who are fighting for more rights for social tenants, I have been absolutely appalled at the sheer scale of disrepair in the SRS.

Many tenants have set up facebook groups to report and share their concerns.  They report not only unacceptable delays in getting defects fixed, but also a feeling that tenants are often treated with contempt by council and housing association staff.

Not to mention large scale cases such as Luminus Housing in Huntingdon that failed to carry out annual gas safety checks on 1000 of their homes and Leeds and Yorkshire Housing Association, downgraded due to concerns over electrical safety compliance.

The HSE decided to take no further action with Luminus and the Regulator of Social Housing praised LYHA for their 'openness and transparency in acknowledging identified issues'.

A private sector landlord would have been jailed.  The double standards are just staggering

Hence EHS 2017 flags higher tenant satisfaction in Private rather than Social rentals.

Thanks for such a valuable and insightful contribution Annie.

This is shocking people usually go into social housing for that safety net incase something goes wrong.

In 1960s/70s many LAs switched to building system built tower blocks rather than low rise terraces/semis - and many were poorly built hence will now be incurring significant maintenance costs.

Council Housing peaked in 1981 with 31% of all housing - around 6 million homes of which 1 million were built pre WW2 or even pre WW1.

As per EHS 2017 - today 75% of all social tenants are HB claimants and thus on low incomes which imply a degree of fuel poverty - and some Council flat blocks may not even have gas supply for safety reasons - which then exacerbates fuel poverty.

My council is responsible for communal heating in some blocks where i have flats

I despair at how useless they are . A whole month to sort it once

I got compensation but had to fight tooth and nail

It went again  6mts later and they tried to say they were not responsible this time

I said they were as I pay for it in my service charge they said they were not .

I said check the lease and your legal team

I copied in EHO / local councillors / MP / chief exec of the council

I sent my gas man in to check what i knew and to confirm he couldnt do anything 

He said i cant fix it as i cant isolate the supply and have no access to the communal boiler

They eventually  admitted i was right and they were wrong and went in to fix it

They offered me compensation . I will claim a lot more this time for all the inconvenience

They think they are a law unto themselves

Their hypocrisy and double standards still astounds me even to this day

Their arrogance and misguided self belief should be challenged at every opportunity

Dont be cowed by them and don`t let them get away with it .

Some up-dates from twitter:


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Ah so these are short life properties used as emergency short term housing - which explains lack of decent level of maintenance - with alternative perhaps being a B&B.

This particular case is the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark, which is undergoing 'regeneration'. 

It is, however, only one case out of dozens that can be found in the media and social media about serious disrepair with SRS properties.

And all these councils and social landlords have to say is 'Tory cuts to funding' and the regulators back off.

Last night, I reached out to Karen Buck MP and she has brought Harriet Harman into the conversation:



I have also alerted a number of my journalist contacts including ITV London and the Telegraph.