Newham Council’s housing service is making big changes to the way it operates to improve homes and the quality of service it delivers to tenants and leaseholders across the borough.
Newham Council today sets out Improving Your Homes: Newham Housing Services Improvement Plan, following last year’s unacceptable Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) report.
The local authority received the Regulator’s lowest grade against its consumer standards, C4, after the watchdog found serious failings across many aspects of the borough’s housing service.
Since then, the Council has been working hard to ensure that all 16,000 of its tenant’s homes are up to standard. It has analysed the causes of previous failings and assessed what needs to be done to address these.
Launched today, the improvement plan sets out the comprehensive actions the Council will take to ensure its tenants and leaseholders live in safe, quality homes; to manage risk and to better involve residents in shaping services moving forward.
The Council has already committed £20million to address fire safety in blocks of flats and £18millon to accelerate its Decent Homes programme. Further investment to support the Improvement Plan has been identified.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, said:
"Let me be clear: our report last year from the Regulator for Social Housing was simply not acceptable and we owe our residents better.
"This Improvement Plan is our firm commitment to doing right by them. We’re listening to residents and delivering urgent action to make homes safer, services stronger and our accountability clear.
"This is about rebuilding trust and putting residents at the heart of everything we do. Our focus now is on lasting change - and we won’t stop until every Newham resident can say they live in a safe, decent home."
Cllr Blossom Young, Cabinet Member for Housing Landlord and Tenant Experience Improvements, said:
“As this plan makes very clear, we are determined to get things right for residents.
“The regulator’s report was a wake-up call to the service and the Council as a whole and residents have also told us we must do better. We are, and we will.
“Around the country there are rightly huge pressures to deliver building and fire safety for residents, not least to ensure the horrors of Grenfell are not repeated in any other community. Newham isn’t immune from the associated financial pressures of this, but that can’t be an excuse for previous failings.
“We’re learning what went wrong and this plan sets out the concrete actions we are taking to make this right.
“We should be held accountable, and while we do have a way to go, we are on the right track to ensure residents live in safe, secure homes and that we deliver a prompt, efficient service to our tenants and leaseholders.
“We’ll be keeping residents informed about changes through our new housing bulletin and website. We are establishing new ways for residents to shape our housing services and to feed back about the service. It’s through their voices that we are able to build a fairer Newham for all.”
Changes so far have included:
- Slashing the number of outstanding repairs from 2,700 ,400 in May last year to under 600 in May 2025.
- 85% of homes now have an electrical condition test within 10 years, with the remainder to be completed by the end of June
- Monthly high rise block inspections being carried out to ensure safety and address maintenance issues quickly.
- The introduction of the Care and Support Team who are contacting more vulnerable tenants in high-rise blocks to support them with person-centred fire risk assessments and personalised fire measures
- Cut the number of overdue fire safety remedial actions by nearly 2,000 by the end of March 2025, with a programme in place for dealing with those remaining.
- Residents are better able to feedback, scrutinise and challenge Newham Council to deliver the improvements promised through a new independent Resident Challenge Board which launched in April
The Council is currently designing a new Housing Resident Involvement Strategy to better involve residents in shaping housing services in neighbourhoods and across the borough.
Over 100 residents have been involved in designing this so far, with further development in spring and summer.
Visit the Improving Your Homes webpage for more details: www.newham.gov.uk/ImprovingYourHomes
