Haringey receives C4 Housing Judgement after serious failings

Haringey Council has received a C4 Judgement from the Social Housing Regulator - the lowest possible rating, given only after ‘very serious failings’. The judgement identifies failings in a litany of areas, detailing major failures in the housing department including: delivery of health & safety requirements; provision of an effective repairs service; delivery of adaptations; working to tackle anti-social behaviour; handling of complaints; and even ‘treating tenants with fairness and respect’. Haringey becomes one of only a handful of councils to have received a C4 notice.

The report also outlines Haringey’s failure to ‘communicate openly and in a timely manner’ with the Regulator, and essentially accuses the council of misleading them over the existence of backlogs in fire safety actions: putting tenants and leaseholders at risk. A previous 2023 judgement from the Regulator had exposed thousands of incomplete fire safety actions, including over 4,000 deemed high risk, but Haringey claimed in writing to the Regulator, that this backlog had been cleared by 2025. This report finds that was untrue, as Haringey had failed to provide ‘full information about a new and growing backlog’.

Liberal Democrats in Haringey have called an Extraordinary Meeting of Full Council in response.

Haringey Liberal Democrats are calling for a root and branch investigation into the council’s housing department, to ensure accountability for both the serious failures in the service, and Haringey’s misleading of the Regulator. They are further calling for serious governance reforms, including partnering with an external organisation to run an emergency improvement programme; adding tenant and leaseholder representatives and external specialists to the council’s Housing Improvement Board (set up after previous failings); and setting up a formal compensation scheme for tenants and leaseholders who receive late or shoddy repairs.

In response to the report, Cllr Luke Cawley-Harrison (LD-Crouch End), Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council, said:

“The failures uncovered by this report are appalling. Haringey’s record on social housing - on timely repairs, dealing with damp and mould, and keeping tenants safe - is utterly indefensible. That the Regulator even found serious failings in ‘treating tenants with fairness and respect’ should make those involved hang their heads in shame.

“The previous Labour administration completely failed our tenants and leaseholders, and the party should now investigate the extent to which its councillors were complicit in Haringey’s deceit of the Regulator - and hold anyone involved accountable. We also need both a proper council investigation into who knew about Haringey’s dishonesty, and urgent action to rectify the failed housing service.”

Notes:

• Judgement from the Regulator for Social Housing