The City of London Corporation has been criticised by the social housing regulator for “serious failings” in the management of its estates.
By Ben Lynch
The City of London Corporation has been criticised by the social housing regulator for “serious failings” in the management of its estates.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), in its first review of the Corporation, found issues including more than 1,000 fire safety actions being overdue and an extensive backlog of works required to bring homes up to scratch.
The report notes that 18 per cent of the Corporation’s housing stock do not currently meet the Decent Homes Standard and that it is not expected to hit 100 per cent compliance until 2035.
The RSH awarded the Corporation a C3 rating which, while not the lowest C4 grade, indicates “significant improvement is needed.”
Deputy Helen Fentimen, the Corporation’s Community and Children’s Services Committee, said the City is “working at pace” to deliver upgrades for residents and that she is ‘pleased’ the regulator recognised action is being taken.
The City of London Corporation has faced much-publicised challenges with the management and financing of its estates.
Perhaps the most well-known of its social housing complexes is Golden Lane in Central London, a listed estate which featured heavily in the Apple TV show Slow Horses.
The Corporation also manages a number of sites outside of the Square Mile, overseeing around 1,900 social homes in total.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has written extensively on issues from lift outages at the York Way Estate in Islington to damp and decay on Golden Lane.
The Corporation’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the ring-fenced pot used to fund repairs and maintenance, has also faced significant challenges.
The LDRS revealed earlier this year that the Corporation had to request “exceptional support” from the Government to enable the account to complete essential works, an application which was granted this week.
In a bid to tackle the backlog of repairs blighting its estates the Corporation last year announced a £211 million funding package, adding to its previously approved £110m programme.
The RSH report, published this morning (February 25), while recognising these commitments highlights multiple areas of concern regarding the Corporation’s housing operation.
These include “serious failings” in meeting health and safety requirements in tenants’ homes and communal areas, and the number of overdue remedial actions relating to electrical safety checks, at more than 1,000.
The Corporation had self-referred its failure to meet electrical and fire safety requirements prior to the RSH inspection.
In the report the regulator writes: “While most were assessed as medium risk, there are a number of high-risk actions that have been overdue for over a year. City of London Corporation is strengthening its approach to managing remedial actions and during the inspection we saw evidence of improving performance, but the number of overdue actions and some timescales for remediation remain a regulatory concern and will be a key part of our future engagement with City of London Corporation.”
The Corporation is also criticised for not having accurate and up-to-date information on the condition of its tenants’ homes.
A stock survey was begun in 2025 which is not to be completed until March this year.
The RSH notes the Corporation is not anticipating that all of its properties will meet the Decent Homes Standard until 2035, which alongside the current proportion of “non-decent homes” presents “a serious failing that has resulted in poor outcomes for tenants”.
The regulator writes its inspectors saw evidence of the Corporation dealing effectively with anti-social behaviour (ASB) and hate incidents, and praises it for engaging ‘constructively’ over the issues raised.
The C3 rating has however come as little surprise to Jackie Doolan, a resident on York Way who has previously spoken to the LDRS about ongoing problems with her estate.
In response to the RSH report, she said residents’ concerns have fallen “on deaf ears” when raised with the Corporation.
“The issues around the disrepair of the current blocks are being left to get worse,” she said. “Lifts which are constantly out of order, ceilings, decorating of corridors, blocked entries, anti-social behaviour, cleaning not up to standard. So many issues.”
Liz Hirst, Vice Chair of the Barbican and Golden Lane Neighbourhood Forum, said there is regret that the Corporation, “with all its wealth and experience, has not been able to look after its own buildings properly over years and years and years; and we have serious concerns about its ability to make things right now without proper funding”.
Ms Hirst added: “This report recognises that, with social housing, there have been ‘longstanding issues’ including health and safety high-risk actions that have been overdue for over a year. On planned maintenance the ‘slow pace of completing some planned improvements’ also comes in for severe criticism, as does the lack of transparency and scrutiny. Such sluggish performance demands a step-change that the City of London has so far proved unable to achieve.”
Sue Pearson, Chair of the Golden Lane Estate Residents’ Association and a former Corporation member, said the contents of the report will come as “no surprise” to City of London tenants.
“The disinterest of all but a handful of councillors has meant that there has been no scrutiny and accountability of the Corporation’s housing department. Whilst the Corporation will now be closely monitored we have little faith that the culture of ‘procrastination and report producing’ will change.
“The need for a separate Housing Committee was one of the recommendations of the Lisvane report in 2020. This was kicked into the long grass and when, in 2024/5, it became obvious that the HRA was failing, the response was the establishment of yet another working group to report sometime in the future. Proper governance is needed today.
“The Corporation must understand that, as a local authority, it has a duty to its tenants, to listen to and work with them and to escalate their programme of improvements so that everyone can have a safe, warm and dry home.”
A Corporation source, speaking to the LDRS anonymously, said: “It’s Sue Pearson who deserves a knighthood for her determination in ensuring our housing stock is brought up to a decent homes standard. Even after leaving the City Corporation she’s still working hard to right years of wrongs.”
Deputy Chris Hayward, the Corporation’s Policy Chair, said: “We recognised that there were historic issues in our housing stock, which is why we agreed a multi-million-pound housing investment action plan in December. We accept these findings in full and are determined to meet the standards our tenants deserve.
“The safety and comfort of our residents is an absolute priority, and our funding package marks a significant investment in ensuring they receive the high-quality housing they deserve.
“I want to reassure residents just how seriously we take this and how dedicated we are to improving our performance for everyone who lives in our homes.”
Deputy Fentimen said: “We are one year into a wide-ranging ten-year transformation which is tackling historic under-investment, and we are working at pace to deliver lasting improvements for residents.
“I am pleased the regulator has recognised that we understand the issues we need to address and are already taking action to ensure all our homes meet the required standards to provide safe, good-quality homes.”
