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Panorama:  What's Gone Wrong With Our Housing

It is now years since I remember seeing disturbing film showing the state of some of the social housing in Croydon and what residents were having to put up with - principally caused by leaking roofs and gutters and the consequent damp. I believe that one was on ITV but here we are again and this time it is a Panorama documentary. This documentary shows an estate in South London and some of the results of Right to Buy 40 years on together with the return of slum landlords.  The many difficulties residents are having to deal with including poor conversions and lack of maintenance. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001kk0h/panorama-whats-gone-wrong-with-our-housinghttps://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/awaabs-law-must-be-extended-to-cover-private-rented-sector-urges-charity-80388https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/awaab-ishaks-death-shames-country-25514384Why do we have to wait for tragedies to pay any attention to these problems? 

Philippa Bond ● 1268d13 Comments

A number of south London boroughs have failed their residents dreadfully.Of all political hues they have squandered resources that could have been used to maintain their housing stock by trying to play property developer with the consequence that, as example, LB Croydon is over £1billion in debt, has crumbling housing stock, is raising Council Tax by 15% this year and the property development company that it established failed to deliver even a single new home in three years. Lambeth has also wound up its 'arms length' development company. It's not just Labour authorities however, Tory Nothamptonshire is failing due to 'unwise; investments and both Kent and Hampshire have overspent.It's going to be difficult to unravel and return to delivering quality homes in the current climate which is why so many councils are being 'raped and pillaged' by developers riding roughshod over them.

N V Brooks ● 1268d

I can tell you with some people I know that the problem is not entirely down to not carrying out repairs but the companies they employ to do the work. Firstly they are sometimes on a budget set out by the council in its original tender so don't end up doing a proper fix but a bodge job fix that only lasts for a period of time. Many of these contractors are sent to cover a wide range of jobs and in reality, have no good experience in doing a wide range of jobs so even a temporary fix or a bodged temporary fix or both as a full fix become bodged anyway and are temporary. So it is down to councils and the budget they have in mind when put out to tender, and the contractor has to work within that budget for the period set to deliver. This is why many have issues that are fixed and then need fixing again. And not helped by those who do a bad job on the work need doing

Julian Pavey ● 1268d

The cheapest tender is not always the best.  Tenderers have to be vetted carefully and tenders have to be very specific.

Philippa Bond ● 1268d

Never really understood why these works go out to tender when they should be handled by in-house teams. External 'property management' companies are, from experience, never cheaper with reports of 'punitive' pricing for simple jobs quite common.

N V Brooks ● 1268d

People go on about slum landlords but London councils seem to be the biggest slum landlords of all.

Susan Kelly ● 1268d

Ruddy good job they don't fine 5hemselves for substandard accommodation.

N V Brooks ● 1268d

The key question is who at the councils is checking the work carried out. Contractors make a fortune out of councils and get away with substandard work because there are zero checks & balances. This doesn’t just apply to housing you only have to look at the roads around chiswick the standard of work carried out by contractors is pretty shocking.

Jayne Thorburn ● 1268d

Nail on head.Councils moan that they can't pay surveyors or project managers to check on progress and quality. How much are they spending getting work repeated or dealing with tenant complaints? Just a simple lack of management and joined up thinking.

N V Brooks ● 1268d

I think it works better when you can trust the competence of workers and don't have to stand over people to make sure that they do the right thing.

Philippa Bond ● 1268d

Dream on, we have employed some fantastic trades over the years but still always check the work. It is shocking that the council waste so much of our money yet a simple process of checking would improve standards. If a contractor knows the work will be checked then as if by magic the quality of the work would improve.

Jayne Thorburn ● 1267d

Why on earth do you presume that work isn't checked at all?No, it is far more shocking that a neoliberal Govt wastes so much of our money privatising everything in sight and then bailing it out when it doesn't work. 

Philippa Bond ● 1267d

Philippa it doesn't all harp back to central government please stop singing off the same tired hymn sheet. Local authorities have been outsourcing maintenance work for decades and have been getting it wrong for just as long. Back in the 1980s Ealing outsourced bathroom modernisation and then had to have virtually every one of them redone to correct faulty plumbing, cracked baths and tiles falling off after heing 'dabbed on'.

N V Brooks ● 1267d

Nigel - you should watch the programme rather than just automatically criticising me.  There were many different situations created by Right to Buy.  Right to Buy is an aspiration of so many (what's wrong with that?) but there have been many unintended consequences as well as the successes and intended consequences.  It has been adjusted a little since the 1980 Housing Act.Do watch the programme.

Philippa Bond ● 1267d