Statement on regulator of social housing judgement
How we're making improvements in response to the Regulator of Social Housing’s judgement on Wandsworth Council.
Wandsworth aims to provide strong and efficient landlord services to the 17,000 tenanted homes we manage.
Following our first inspection in November 2024, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has awarded a C3 rating.
The main reasons for our rating were a limited number of “serious failings” around our delivery of the consumer standards.
We want to reassure residents that we are taking swift and decisive action to make improvements in relation to building health and safety.
Addressing specific areas for improvement raised by the Regulator, we can confirm the following actions have been undertaken:
Stock condition - We undertake numerous checks and inspections to the homes it manages however the Regulator noted that we had only completed surveys of a small sample of our homes. We took the approach of following an industry standard recommendation, however we now appreciate that this is no longer fit for purpose. We have taken steps to address this and will be undertaking a full stock condition survey of the homes that we manage. 20% of the council’s stock will be surveyed every year, for the next five years.
Electrical safety - Since 2021, a programme has been in place to undertake electrical safety checks to homes and communal spaces. At the time of the inspection, the number of homes completed was lower than we had hoped. Since the inspection, we have made significant progress. 75% of communal areas and 70% of homes have now had electrical tests completed.
The Regulator also highlighted that 1,800 fire safety remedial actions remain overdue. To put this figure into context, we have completed over 38,000 actions and none of those that are overdue were assessed to be serious, or place residents at risk, by an independent Fire Risk Assessor.
We are pleased that we are broadly meeting the requirements of the other consumer standards and look forward to working closely with the Regulator over the coming months to improve our rating.
We will be providing a detailed article on the Regulator’s report in the next edition of Homelife, our residents’ newsletter that is distributed to over 30,000 tenants and leaseholders.
Aydin Dikerdem, Cabinet Member for Housing said: “Delivering the highest quality service to our Council tenants remains an absolute priority for this Council.
“Since we took control of the Council over two years ago, we have invested significant new resources into our housing management teams and reforming our tenant participation structures.
“While it is not what we hoped for, this report will help us in targeting where we need to improve and the areas of the new housing regulatory framework we need to adapt to. We look forward to working with the regulator to make this happen.”
Frequently asked questions
You can read frequently asked questions about the judgement.