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'Serious failings' in council homes say inspectors

Paul Barltrop
Political editor, West of England•@paulbarltrop
Sophie Parker
BBC News, Wiltshire
BBC Jim Robbins outside red brick council building looking at the camera. He wears a suit with a red tie.BBC
Council leader Jim Robbins said they wanted to work with the regulator

A judgement on a council's social housing has said there are "serious failings" in standards and "significant improvement" is needed.

Swindon Borough Council - which owns and manages more than 10,000 social and affordable rent homes - self-referred to the social housing regulator.

Leader of the council Jim Robbins said he wanted to "work really positively with the regulator" and it had not raised any issues they were not already aware of.

Problems included fire safety, electrical safety and the repair service.

Close-up of Swindon Borough Council logo on a sign with the red brick HQ blurred in the background.
Swindon Borough Council self-referred to the regulator

"We knew there were some challenges in our housing departments and we didn't think there had been enough investment" said Mr Robbins, who explained they already had plans to sort all the issues.

He said that the council has already planned to spend £250m on its homes.

"We are committed to doing everything we can to sort that out as quickly as possible. We also want to build new council housing to get down the amount of people on our waiting list" he added.

Maggie sits in an armchair looking at the camera, but sits side on. She is wearing a colourful patterned shirt with lots of green and has glasses.
Maggie Hathaway-Mills likes where she lives, but has had difficulty getting repairs handled

'No real oversight'

Maggie Hathaway-Mills has lived in a sheltered housing tower block in Swindon for 13 years which has lots of communal facilities and likes it: "I wouldn't leave. You would have to drag me out."

There are wardens, which she said were "fantastic" and she had "no complaints" about council workers.

However, she was concerned about repairs and felt there was not the same level of checks in place that there used to be.

"There is no real oversight and that's what causing problems."

Recently, her bathroom was being re-done and she was left without a toilet. She was told to use one several floors down, when she uses a walking frame.

Ms Hathaway-Mills said: "It's the system that's got hiccups. They've always had hiccups but the hiccups are getting bigger."

Top of a tall block of flats underneath a blue sky. Decorative iron work on top and rendered in a cream and sand colour.
Sheltered housing is among the type of accomodation the council manages

'Tricky situation'

Mr Robbins put the lack of investment in the housing down to low local authority funding over time.

"It's a really tricky situation. I think there haven't been the right levels of investment in the past. We are doing everything we can."

He said they had already been working on the fire safety issues and had hired new management in the housing department.

Mr Robbins has asked residents to come along to the council's engagement sessions.

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