Our commitment to improving safety standards in your home

Dear resident,

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) oversees the social housing sector to ensure landlords deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants. From 1 April 2024, the regulator began carrying out regulatory inspections of social landlords.

The regulator has carried out the first review of our performance and has judged that we are not currently meeting the levels of quality and safety expected and need to do more to improve how we look after council-owned homes. This rating is also known as ‘C3’.

We have been working with the regulator and accept the findings of the review. We aim to deliver a high standard of housing and are very sorry that we have fallen below the expected standards.

We are working hard to put things right quickly and improve our arrangements for the maintenance of council-owned homes.

We are committed to being open and transparent with you about what has gone wrong, how we’re putting it right and the progress we are making.

Our focus is on the key issues of concern raised in the review – electrical safety, smoke detection, water risk assessments and fire safety remedial actions, plus providing an effective, efficient and timely repairs service.

We will continue to work with East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, the Building Safety Regulator and the Health & Safety Executive to ensure everything possible is being done to keep you and your families safe.

We are making improvements to the way we deliver the housing service, which include:

• Speeding up the electrical testing programme in your homes to ensure all wiring and installations are safe.
• Completing a programme of work to ensure that all homes have working smoke detectors.
• Planning a programme of water assessments and remedial actions in homes which have been identified as being at risk.
• Completing outstanding fire safety actions in properties with communal areas.
• Clearing the backlog of routine repair work and reducing response times for new routine repair requests. This includes the appointment of 2 new contractors to speed up the work on outstanding repairs.

Alongside, we will provide you with more opportunities to talk to us about your housing and the information contained in this letter.

This year’s Council Annual Tenant Conference is taking place on 23 October at Whitehawk Community Hub in Whitehawk Road, Brighton BN2 5DG. We will include an update about all the work taking place.

The conference is organised by council tenants, leaseholders and housing staff and is open to anyone that lives in a council home. 

It is a chance for housing staff to understand your experiences, for you to talk about your home, our services, and your priorities.  

If you’d like to see a copy of the full RSH report or find out more, please visit our dedicated webpage at www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/RSHreport.

We can also send paper copies of the report. If you’d like a paper copy, please request one by calling our Housing Customer Service Team on 01273 293030.

You may also notice an increase in visits from our officers and contractors for inspections and repairs in relation to our work to put things right.

Please remember to always check for official identification before allowing entry. If you’re in any way unsure, do contact us to verify their identity.

If you wish to raise a safety concern, have questions or there is anything else we can help with, please contact the Housing Customer Service Team on 01273 293030.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Gill Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing & New Homes

Martin Reid, Interim Corporate Director, Housing