Lambeth Housing Strategy 2023-2030: Consultation response from Lambeth Liberal Democrats

General Comments - Our Vision

Lambeth is in the midst of a housing crisis. Far too many Lambeth residents are unable to afford a place they can call home, and what they do pay over the odds for is often in an unacceptable state. We welcome the introduction of this strategy. It is troubling that Lambeth has been without one since 2020. With the inquiry into, and subsequent collapse of, homes for Lambeth and an ongoing in-person investigation by  the Housing Ombudsman, this report has already come too late.

We agree that this Housing Strategy correctly identifies three major areas of concern for our borough: (1) the lack of affordable homes, (2) the dire state of housing and repair services, and (3) the need to prioritise healthy neighbourhoods and climate-positive projects in the future.

However, the Liberal Democrats are concerned that the Housing Strategy, as outlined, does not set any clear performance indicators for Lambeth to mark itself against, nor does the vision go far enough to change the status quo. The problems have been correctly identified, but to be remedied proper targets need to be established, including:

• A target for the number of new homes built in the borough each year until 2030, with at least 40% being available as affordable housing.
• A timescale for facilitating new ‘direct delivery’ housing development projects in Lambeth.
• A date by which 50 percent of the ~400 long-term empty homes owned by Lambeth Council will be occupied by social housing tenants.
• A new category for Urgent / Crisis Maintenance and Repairs, with a target to inspect 100 percent of cases within 48 hours and for works to commence within 10 working days (or 28 working days if the resident is moved to Temporary Accommodation).
• An updated Members’ Enquiry portal and a new portal specifically for HM Responsive Repairs which does not allow casework to be marked as ‘Closed’ until works are fully complete, to stop Lambeth’s Members’ Enquiry completion rate from being skewed by false data.

Priority 1: More Affordable Homes

The provision of more affordable homes is a key policy priority for Lambeth Liberal Democrats. Lambeth is at the coalface of the housing crisis, which is exacerbated by a variety of factors including an outdated planning system. There are more people on Lambeth’s social housing waiting list – at 40,000 – than in any other London Borough. The waiting list is growing at a rate 3.75 times greater than the rate at which homes can be found for people.

Data from before the pandemic showed that in the UK, an additional 3.5 million people are pulled into poverty once housing costs are accounted for. Put simply, Lambeth is not building new homes quickly enough, and it is disappointing that this strategy does not outline a method to change that.

The strategy says, “The council’s preferred approach to estate renewal and delivering new homes sites remains through direct delivery where possible”, but the decision to offload the Somerleyton Road project to a private developer admitted that, in reality, direct delivery in Lambeth is only a “long-term goal”. Direct delivery – or ‘in-house’ delivery – involves the Council acting as the developer, meaning it would keep all receipts, thereby allowing profit to be reinvested into further house building projects.

Lambeth must immediately begin the process of increasing its capacity for direct delivery (by recruiting staff, applying for funding, etc.), otherwise the 2023-2030 Housing Strategy will continue to haemorrhage funds to the private sector which could otherwise have been used to invest in 100% affordable housing projects.

On affordable housing, the Liberal Democrats agree that 80% of market rent does not constitute truly affordable housing. The strategy mentions London Living Rents, but does not say whether Lambeth will use this as its indicator to redefine affordable housing within the borough. We understand that Lambeth's current definition of affordable housing includes shared-ownership sales – we do not believe that should be the case because shared ownership homes are not affordable for the vast majority. The Liberal Democrats want Lambeth Council to lead the way by introducing its own new definition for truly affordable housing.

We recognise that providing affordable social housing has been made more difficult because the crisis has ballooned due, in part, to UK Government policies set by the Conservative Party. The Liberal Democrats have campaigned for the Government to end the Local Housing Allowance freeze, and then to increase it from the 30th to the 50th percentile of local market rents.

Lambeth does well to support over 4,000 residents in Temporary Accommodation, but we are concerned that the council is forced to spend much more than comparable boroughs. The cost of providing Temporary Accommodation is projected to increase by 245% in just three years – to £36.0m in 2024/25 – because three-quarters of occupants are in expensive nightly-paid accommodation.

In addition, flimsy, unmonitored contracts, such as those in conjunction with the Euro Hotels Group, have been subject to much external scrutiny. Temporary Accommodation sites in Lambeth are housing cases from as far away as Guildford and Elmbridge, a practice which needs to be reviewed.

The strategy refers to making better use of existing homes, including long-term empty homes, but it fails to mention that 1 in 62 homes in Lambeth are currently long-term empty. The number of long-term empty homes in Lambeth rose by 4% last year (Source: Action on Empty Homes) and a Freedom of Information request in 2022 revealed that 421 empty homes were owned by Lambeth Council. The Liberal Democrats question why there are so many empty homes on the council’s books, and call on Lambeth to produce a plan to bring 50% of those homes back into use.

Priority 2: Delivering Excellent Housing and Repair Services

The housing and repair service provided by Lambeth in the most urgent cases is totally unacceptable and inadequate. We cannot be clear enough: it is completely failing. The Liberal Democrat councillors see this day in, day out, in our casework. We each have severe cases (damp and mould, broken windows, faulty boilers, major leaks, etc.) which have been dragging on for years, forcing some residents to take their claims to court.

The complaints procedure has broken down completely. There is no chain of command and not enough individual responsibility taken to ensure that a job is completed satisfactorily – Officers regularly tell residents that a problem is “not my department”. That is why we suggest an Urgent Repairs Case Officer is employed. In some instances, residents have taken days off work to stay at home awaiting contractors who have then had the discourtesy to cancel or not show up to the appointment without good reason. It seems a common theme that residents have severe damp and mould covered up or washed off temporarily in the short-term, but left totally untreated and festering beneath new plasterboard in the long-term. “Out of sight, out of mind” is not how damp and mould – which led to the death of Awaab Ishak in 2020 – should be treated.

Since April 2022, the Housing Ombudsman has determined 19 cases of severe maladministration and 47 cases of maladministration in Lambeth. The council has been subject to the UK’s first in-person inspection by the Housing Ombudsman and has received two stern warnings from the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government for its inaction. Media outlets including BBC News and South London Press have reported the impact that Lambeth’s failings have had on residents’ lives.

We also uncovered that Lambeth has spent £1.8 million on non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality clauses with leaseholders to prevent them from sharing their experiences publicly. This is a gross misuse of public funds. The Liberal Democrats are especially concerned to find out that Lambeth does not keep a full record of legal costs accrued on these confidentiality agreements – that must change.

Lambeth’s Housing and Repair Services require major structural changes. When a resident raises an urgent repair job, they are reduced to a reference number on a very long list and very often forgotten about. At the moment, residents’ lived experiences are ignored. We suggest that Lambeth should:

1. Employ an Urgent Repairs Case Officer, whose sole role is to keep progressing the most severe cases. They would be a clear point of contact for councillors to refer cases which cannot afford to wait 10 days for a Members’ Enquiry response, and they would then be responsible for following up on these cases internally. We are regularly finding that contractors are not completing the jobs on schedule or to standard, and the burden then falls on councillors to run around the houses to identify what is going on and to attempt to put it right.
2. Ensure that HM Responsive Repairs have a target-led system similar to the Members’ Enquiry portal, but with a turnaround time of within three working days.
3. Upgrade the Members’ Enquiry portal to make it fit-for-purpose. Most importantly, Council Officers should not be able to mark a Members’ Enquiry as ‘Answered (Closed)’ until it has been confirmed by the councillor who raised the case that the repairs have been fully completed. Currently, cases are marked as complete as soon as an Officer has responded to the councillor’s request via email. It’s sometimes the case that an appointment for work to be carried out has not even been organised at that stage. If the job is not done, it should not be marked as complete.
4. Automatically inform residents of Lambeth’s complaints process when a complaint is first made. Residents must be made aware that the Housing Ombudsman will not be able to intervene if they refer their case to court. We have met several residents who were unaware they could make a claim through the Housing Ombudsman, and had therefore already begun to take their case through a court process. The complaints system also needs to be simpler and more straightforward, ensuring that vulnerable residents and those for whom English is not their first language can access the support they need.

Priority 3: Supporting Healthy and Safe Neighbourhoods

The consultation asks whether there are aspects of residents’ housing that impact badly on their mental health and wellbeing. Lambeth Council has a track record of billing its leaseholders for extortionate service charges, which are often found to be illegitimate requests upon further inspection. Our understanding is that some residents who have successfully challenged the council in court have then been encouraged to sign non-disclosure agreements to prevent neighbours from finding out that they have been unfairly charged.

To give just one example, leaseholders in Deauville Court, Elms Crescent, were suddenly told that they are expected to foot the bill for Lambeth spending £55,000 on Repairs and Maintenance for 2022/23, despite the estimated cost being just £15,000. They were not forewarned, consulted, or provided with full invoices or evidence of competitive tender for the works being charged. That is simply unfair. The spreadsheets and billing system which tenants and leaseholders are given are almost impossible to make head or tail of, and in our experience Council Officers struggle to explain how fees were calculated when they are challenged. A new system must be introduced which is clearer and more accessible for every single tenant and leaseholder.

In Lambeth’s 62 conservation areas, we have heard from leaseholders who feel repair works are costing far more than they should because Lambeth has not brought its repairs strategy up-to-date with modern laws and practices. Taking into account the historic character of conservation areas does not mean that Lambeth has to overspend unnecessarily on less effective solutions. Lambeth needs to update its awareness of planning regulations and always look for the solution with the strongest cost-benefit assessment. .

The Liberal Democrats expect Lambeth to tighten the rules to ensure that leaseholders are properly consulted before major works are undertaken, with a maximum cost to leaseholders clearly outlined before major works are undertaken, and a framework published to guarantee that all works within reason are put out to competitive tender.

Concluding Remarks

Besides taking on board the recommendations outlined above, Lambeth Liberal Democrats believe that – in the interest of true transparency and accountability – Lambeth Council should self-refer itself with immediate effect to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), the national body which oversees local authority landlords. Other Labour-run councils, including Ealing and Haringey, have already taken this step. It is vital that an independent body assesses whether Lambeth has breached the Homes Standard.

Liberal Democrats believe in taking action to tackle the housing crisis. Lambeth’s housing market is profoundly unfair, with a secure home becoming increasingly impossible for millions of people, especially the young, less well off, and ethnic minorities. The poor mismanagement of housing by Lambeth Council is exacerbating problems caused by the Conservative Government.  Hundreds of thousands of pounds are being unnecessarily wasted each year, while costing residents their right to live in a safe and warm home.

Following the introduction of our ‘Tackling the Housing Crisis’ policy paper at Autumn Conference, we will continue to campaign nationally for:

• A national target for building social homes, aiming for 150,000 a year by the end of the next parliament. With new powers for local authorities to build their own social and affordable housing.
• A ten year emergency programme to insulate Britain’s homes as well as new standards to ensure new homes are warm, cheap to heat and produce minimal emissions.
• Ensuring developers build appropriate infrastructure needed for new housing developments.
• Abolishing leaseholds for residential properties and effectively ending ground rents by cutting them to a nominal fee.
• Introducing a fair deal for renters, including longer default tenancies, rent smoothing over the course of a tenancy and banning no fault evictions.
• New powers for local authorities to control and manage second homes and holiday lets.
• Expansion of Neighbourhood Planning, more democratic engagement in Local Plans, reforming the Land Compensation Act to ensure land can be bought at a fair price and extending the Liberal Democrat proposed Commercial Landowner Levy to land with planning permission, but not yet built on.
• Building 10 new garden cities to help tackle the housing crisis.