Further information for Birmingham City Council tenants

What happened

In May 2023 the regulator found that we have breached the ‘Home Standard’ and ‘Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard'.

What this means

We have a responsibility to meet health and safety standards to make sure our homes are safe.

The regulatory notice has been given because we are non-compliant in some areas of health and safety. These areas are:

  • fire safety in low rise blocks
  • electrical safety checks
  • asbestos surveys

The regulator also said that we are non-compliant, as not all our homes meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard.

The regulatory notice has also been given because of the way in which we manage complaints.

The regulator has found that in some instances, we do not respond well to tenants who raise a complaint with us.

We are sorry about this breach of standards.

We understand that our tenants will feel let down by us, and we are committed to being open and transparent with you as we work to put this right.

The housing team is already working to correct these mistakes. The regulator is monitoring our progress as we improve.

We meet with the regulator frequently.

Homes that are affected - updated August 2024

After the regulatory notice was issued, we put in place an improvement plan to make sure that we put things right.

Fire Safety

Only low-rise blocks are affected. 102 of low-rise blocks require a fire risk assessment. These are blocks of less than seven stories, or under 18m height.

Progress since June 2024: our performance has improved. The number of blocks with a completed fire risk assessment has increased from 86.87% to 94.68%..

Asbestos

There are 4299 properties in blocks of flats where an asbestos report is required.

Progress since our last update: our performance has improved. The number of properties with a completed asbestos report has increased from to 71.22% to 78.66%..

Electrical Safety

There are 6721 homes that do not have an electrical certificate completed in the last five years.

Progress since April 2023: our performance has improved. The number of properties with a valid electrical certificate has increased from 73.69% to 88.48%..

Decent Homes

There are approximately 23,400 of our 60,000 homes (39%) that do not meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard.

What you should do if you think your home is unsafe

You can report a housing repair online or phone 0121 216 3330.

Find out more about council home repairs and maintenance

When you will know if your home is affected

We have already started working on the homes and buildings that are affected.

You do not need to contact us, we will contact you if your home needs assessment. We will do this as soon as we can.

Most of the checks are in communal areas, but for tenants whose homes need an electrical certificate, we will contact you to arrange this.

There have been problems with my home for a long time. When will things change?

We know that there are issues with the condition of some Birmingham City Council homes, although many are in very good condition.

We are committed to making the improvements needed to ensure all our tenants live in a safe and high quality home. Much of our housing was built over 70 years ago and therefore needs significant investment to keep it to a high standard.

Going forward, we are increasing the amount of money we are investing in our housing with an additional £40million added to the funds in 2023/24 to invest in our homes.

This investment will be targeted to the homes that need it the most. We are also publishing a new investment plan this year which will outline additional investment in our homes from 2024/25.

Can I pay less rent if my home is in bad condition?

To enable us to invest in our properties at the scale that is needed, it is not possible for us to reduce rents.

If you do not pay your rent, you risk losing your home. You must continue to pay your rent and service charges as normal.

Why have you not responded to my complaint?

We have recently seen an increase in the number of complaints being made due to our tenants being understandably concerned about damp and mould. This has increased the volume of complaints we have received.

This means we have not been able to get back to people as quickly as we should have.

We are working as hard as we can to respond and resolve complaints and have recruited 10 new officers in our complaints team to help with this.

We are also delivering an improvement plan to address the concerns raised by the Housing Ombudsman and regulator in relation to how we respond to and manage complaints.


Page last updated: 16 August 2024

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