Agenda item

To receive a progress report on Electrical Testing in Council Homes from Councillor Sarah King, Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Hakeem Osinaike, Strategic Director of Housing.

The committee first heard from Cllr Sarah King, Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Hakeem Osinaike, Strategic Director for Housing on the following points of discussion.

• Self-referral to regulator based on earlier findings of the lack of electrical testing and smoke alarms; Council repairs and external contractors appointed to ensure timelines for electrical safety testing are being met.
• Challenges around procurement of contractors and subsequent delivery of electrical testing; Prioritising electrical testing in higher risk tower blocks and elderly vulnerable tenants and tenants who have concerns
• Existing contractors increase their capacity form May 2025 and procurement of two additional contractors to support them; target is to reach compliance by March 2026 and aiming to access every council home.

The Chair then clarified para.14 of the report; 24256 homes that need electrical testing is a lower starting point; this is to accommodate the new standards of testing in already tested homes. In addition, the Chair explained that it’s also necessary to prioritise elderly vulnerable people, factoring in their individual vulnerabilities.

The committee then asked the following questions

• Process for electrical testing in a home, tolerance and contingency within this program and further electrical work as an outcome of the inspection; Communication with residents on the plans for electrical times including lead time and completion.
• Detection of hidden defects in wiring especially around kitchen appliances; Clarification on data issues - 50% of 34,000 homes equated to 17,000 homes, the lower starting point of 24,000 homes equates to 73%.
• General trends in the outcomes of electrical testing currently being carried out; Timeline for electrical testing of street properties who have not raised concerns but received a letter from the council six months prior.

Hakeem explained to the committee that the possible outcomes of electrical testing in homes can range from satisfactory and compliant to urgent and non-urgent work and will be prioritised accordingly. The council has an agreement with contractors that urgent work in a home will be done immediately while on site. Non-urgent work will be prioritised either by Housing Services Repair programme or the planned maintenance work. Furthermore, residents have received a letter explaining the process, the time required and the personnel that would visit their homes who would further explain any additional work that needs to be carried out. Electrical testing is done in a five-year cycle; however, the council intends to start the testing earlier to spread out the workload and as a result it’s possible that some homes might have their electrical testing before the five-year timeline for electrical testing in their home ends.

Cllr King explained to the committee that the internal council data indicates that some form of electrical safety testing has taken place in 50% of council homes, however these properties might not necessarily have an electrical safety test certificate. The council in conjunction with the regulator aims to cover all properties that are lacking in the new standards of compliance also ensuring the data is up to date and more accurate and complete. Multiple households living in the same block will be given higher priority for electrical testing.

Hakeem informed the committee that the council’s aim to is to reach compliance by March 2026 and the contractors have estimated that from May 2025 they should be able to complete 2800 homes every month, in addition two additional contractors will start testing in the summer months and we should be reaching all properties soon, but there needs to be agreement on prioritisation. Budget allocation for the delivery of testing timelines seems to be on track now and no major concerns have been raised with regards to achieving the targets.

The committee then asked further questions on the following themes

• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) structures for preventing failures, £250m budget allocations
• Stock condition survey and identifying previously un-discovered vulnerable people post pandemic through annual tenancy checks
• Historical context - Housing Improvement Board report from November 2022 and delay in addressing issues leading to current conditions of EICR in homes; Assurances of meeting the March 2025 target for completion to residents; Informing the regulator of lower starting point in electrical testing; Contingency plan in case target is missed and assurances to residents on safety of their homes

The committee learnt form Cllr King that the Electrical Safety Audit work carried out by the council a year ago led the council to make a self-referral to the Social Housing regulator. The stock condition survey work carried out by the council indicated the need to increase the electrical testing work, the regulator agreed with steps the council had taken to undertake this work. The council is working with the regulator in addressing the concerns in the judgement of the council as a social landlord, also identifying areas that have not been picked up in the audit by the regulator.

Hakeem explained to the committee that the housing team is also working on analysing the root cause of failures in electrical testing to futureproof this process. The stock condition survey being carried out is extensive and covers people living in these properties, not just building structures and the council is also working with partners in Public Health and Adult Social Care.

Cllr King further explained that the council staff such as officers and estate managers are working closely to raise communal repairs issues and identifying vulnerable, and this has been successful recently.

Hakeem informed the committee, as Cllr King mentioned earlier that the computer systems the council used to record electrical safety tests indicate a much higher number of homes where tests have been conducted, however officers are not counting those properties where we haven’t been able to locate the EICR certificates. Furthermore, this lower starting point is to give the council complete data assurance and setting higher standards in electrical testing. The regulator for social housing is provided regular updates on issues (EICR) identified by them and the issues identified by the council, the regulator agrees that the council is progressing in the right direction in this regard. The system that the council is using for electrical safety is called True Compliance where one cannot circumvent the electrical safety test certificate, and this would ensure that homes are compliant. The council is doing root cause analysis of past failures in electrical testing.

Cllr King explained to the committee that the council initially wrote to residents on electrical testing and currently using the tenant engagement structure such as repairs improvement board to communicate monthly with residents. The council is also setting up a Housing Management Board to effectively communicate with tenants and learn about their experiences, to provide progress reports and provide assurances here onwards.