Kirklees Council has breached health and safety requirements in its housing stock – putting tenants at risk of ‘serious detriment’, an investigation has found.

In a regulatory notice published on Wednesday, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) concluded that Kirklees Council has failed to deliver the outcomes of a consumer standard that is in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants. Part of this requires the local authority to provide a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service.

The council, aware of a “considerable backlog” of works, made a self-referral to the RSH. Its investigation found that although the council had carried out fire risk assessments for all relevant blocks, 20,000 fire safety actions were overdue, with 200 considered “high risk”.

In addition, the council had not completed over 1,500 damp and mould repairs in tenants’ homes. According to the notice, the local authority had told the RSH that it has had a “consistently high number” of homes with unresolved cases of damp and mould since December 2022.

The RSH also found that the council did not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its statutory health and safety responsibilities in relation to fire safety, nor did it provide a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service, as it did not respond effectively to the significant numbers of high-risk damp and mould cases in its homes.

However, the RSH has given assurance that the council has demonstrated that it now understands its responsibilities, and is taking action to complete the overdue fire safety actions and address reports of damp and mould. The two bodies will work together to remedy the breach going forward, with the council set to invest £117m in fire safety in its housing stock by 2031.

Councillor Moses Crook, Cabinet member for Housing has responded to the regulatory notice: “Tenant safety is our top priority which is why we referred ourselves to the regulator for these issues. We are aware that we need to get through a considerable backlog of works and want to assure tenants that they remain safe because of the risk management we already have in place. We will be working with the Regulator of Social Housing to tackle the issues raised in their notice and address their concerns around the number of outstanding fire risk actions and levels of damp, mould and condensation cases.

“Over the next few months, we will be recruiting more staff to help increase the pace of delivery across both damp, mould and condensation and fire safety improvements.

“We have several programmes of work already in delivery to resolve actions identified through fire risk assessments and are developing further schemes to address the remainder. For some blocks this means we will be undertaking large-scale refurbishment works and for others it means renewals and small-scale improvements to homes and communal areas. We continue to prioritise actions and work based on the level of risk to tenants and the wider public.

"We will be investing over £117 million on fire safety improvements across council housing by 2031."