Sandwell Council refers itself to housing watchdog over electrical reports for social housing

The council found that while over three quarters of homes had an EICR within the last five years, under one in 20 – or 1,245 – had a report over 10 years old.

A key reason for this was because that electrical safety data was not held on a system which enabled performance to be easily tracked, council chiefs said.

Now the authority, which manages the homes, has referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing and put forward an improvement plan to rectify the issue.

Leader of Sandwell Council, Councillor Kerrie Carmichael, said: "Since discovering this issue I have asked officers to self-refer the council to the Regulator of Social Housing, as we are determined to put this right quickly and transparently.

"I can assure tenants that we are carrying out these checks as quickly as possible to ensure all properties have been looked at within sector standards.

"As a council we have been developing an improvement plan that sets out the changes we are making to the way we work to address historical issues such as this. We know there are things we still need to change so are putting robust and rapid processes in place so that as soon as issues are identified they can be rectified."

By December this year, all properties will have an EICR of no more than five years old to adhere to sector standards. The oldest EICRs will be prioritised first, with those older than 10 years being completed by the end of next month.

Tenants affected are being contacted so a visit can be arranged as soon as possible and the authority has increased the capacity to deliver EICRs through a contractor, at a target of 100 per day.

A "root and branch" review of the council’s housing management framework is being carried out to develop a "comprehensive" improvement plan to ensure the council is compliant with all its obligations as a landlord.