Social housing residents 'second-class citizens' over home repairs

More than half of people living in social housing in England have experienced a problem with their home in the past three years, including electrical faults, gas leaks and faulty lifts.

Research by the homeless charity Shelter shows approximately 2.5 million people have had a problem and one in 10 had to report it 10 times before it was dealt with.

Michael Mohid, 70, has lived in the same council flat in southeast London for more than 30 years.

He said the flat has been permanently damaged by four major floods in that time.

"When I had a flood in the downstairs toilet, the council didn't fix it for weeks because it had asbestos panelling," he said.

"I had to walk through the flood water every morning, I tried to mop it but couldn't keep up with it."

On another occasion Mr Mohid said the flat was without electricity for three weeks.

"It makes you very stressed," he said.

"The garden has some subsidence so there was a crack in the wall. Every time it rained, water would get in and leave the carpet squelchy. I had to keep on reporting it."

Karen Connelly, 54, lives on the same housing estate and has been campaigning for residents for more than a decade.

She was awarded £4,000 in compensation from Southwark Council after being exposed to asbestos.

She said: "People are at their wits' end. They are scared, anxious and angry and don't feel like they are being listened to.

"The whole complaints procedure for any disrepair is harrowing. Every step of the way we are treated like second-rate citizens.

"We are dealing with faulty electrics, raw sewage and the heating and hot water never works."

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Councillor Kieron Williams, cabinet member for housing management and modernisation at Southwark Council, said: "As the landlord of London's largest social housing stock, it is a mammoth task to manage our repairs in a timely way, and successive cuts by central government to council budgets have only made it harder.

"However, we always strive to deliver the very highest standards of service to our tenants and as a council we are proud to have an 89% repair satisfaction rate from our residents."

The research comes almost two years after the Grenfell Tower fire, which exposed the failures of social housing in the UK. There have been calls for tougher regulations to better protect people living in social housing.

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said: "Tenants were not listened to at Grenfell and they are still not being listened to in social housing up and down the country.

"They are acutely aware of that and it's leading them to fear for their safety, which is hardly surprising given what happened at Grenfell.

"So what we really need is a new regulator that will hear tenants' concerns, and follow them up, and be accountable to tenants themselves."

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "No one should be forced to live in unsafe housing and we are working closely with Grenfell United and others to ensure social homes are safe and issues are resolved quickly.

"In our recent Social Housing Green Paper consultation we set out proposals to re-balance the relationship between residents and landlords, to tackle stigma and ensure residents' voices are heard - and we will publish our response before the summer recess."