Members of one of Southern Housing Group’s own internal scrutiny panels has taken the bold step of blowing the whistle over the landlord’s serious failure to fulfil its responsibilities towards tenants and residents.
Shockingly, they have exposed cases where the most vulnerable tenants and residents have been housed in appalling conditions and forgotten about.
One of the most strikingly tragic aspects of the Grenfell fire was the extent to which residents forwarned of potential disaster but were ignored. It is clear that even the most well-resourced landlords continue to ignore the red flags raised within their own organisations.
Southern Housing Group is one of the largest housing association landlords in Britain
Richard Brittain acted on behalf of the Kent Regional Resident’s Panel (Kent RRP) in taking the unusual step of going public because it’s members allege that Southern’s governance staff “now regularly take every opportunity to block scrutiny”. Mr Brittain, who chairs the Panel however insists that he “will not stay silent … there are tenants out there, in huge numbers, suffering because of [Southern’s] inactions”.
Children Moved into Crumbling Property
One of the most shocking cases highlighted by the panel to illustrate their concerns is that of a tenant fleeing domestic violence with her two children. The family was relocated to temporary accommodation provided by Southern. The property they were moved to left the tenant struggling to provide for the children in a home without a fridge or cooker, and asking “how do I feed the kids tonight?”.
Problems within the property included no light in the kitchen, doors falling off their hinges, and gaps in the floorboards with rusty nails poking up. One of the children has already sustained an injury. Mr Brittain goes on to describe how the family only received some support from Southern after his personal intervention, but the family remain in the same property.
As the panel points out, such conditions could represent a breach of Southern’s legal responsibilities under safeguarding legislation, including the Care Act 2014, the Children’s Act 2004, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, and the Landlord and Tenants Act 1985.
Southern Housing’s disrepairs recently made BBC headlines (see more here)
A Sytematic Failure to Listen
Mr Brittain’s letter lists serious and wide-ranging concerns about the service the landlord provides to tenants and residents, as evidenced by those it has contacted. People attempting to contact Southern face long waiting times, unreturned phone calls, and an all-too-familiar general lack of responsiveness.
The panel describes the problems as “indicative of a broader cultural issue within
Southern Housing, where tenant welfare and satisfaction are not prioritised”. It calls on Southern to take tenant and resident concerns seriously, launch an urgent review of safeguarding protocols, improve its responsiveness, communication, and transparency, and adhere to legal obligations.
Southern in Denial
Southern Housing responded to the panel’s statement saying “we take all allegations of failings very seriously and will investigate the matters that have been raised in the statement and report back to the panel at its next meeting”.
Southern further claims that the facts as laid out by the panel were “misstated” and disagree with the “sweeping generalisations about Southern Housing in relation to its culture and its governance”, denying that these are systemic. Yet while Southern may disagree with its own panel, the allegations echo numerous complaints to SHAC by Southern’s tenants and residents.
The landlord is also critical of the panel’s whistleblowing actions to draw attention to the landlord’s internal failings. Yet as the panel chair points out, Southern has had “a long time to investigate and help these tenants. And you haven’t. What do you expect us to do as a Panel? Just sit back and watch people suffer, and in some extreme cases die while waiting for support? Do you realise your tenants are committing suicide in some cases, because of your actions or inactions?”. This highlights just how imbalanced the power tenants and residents is against that of landlords, with little or no recourse to action for even the most urgent and serious issues.
Salt in the Wound
Adding to the anger of tenants and residents, the Tenant Advisory and Participation Service (Tpas) made Southern its first ever housing association to be formally recognised for meeting a clear set of standards in its resident engagement and scrutiny work.
Southern Housing accepted a governance award from the Tenant Advisory and Participation Service
Mr Brittain and his colleagues on the resident panel describe this as rubbing salt into an already large wound. In contrast to the conclusions reached by Tpas, the landlord’s own residents believe that the organisation needs a complete change of culture.
Such injustices have led SHAC and campaign partners to launch a project for a democratic national tenants and residents union set up by the trade union movement and working to a collective self-empowerment model.
For the full correspondence between Kent Regional Resident’s Panel and Southern Housing, see the following:
- Kent RRP Position Statement 16_10_24
- Safeguarding Concerns – Letter to Kent RRP 03_10_24
- Letter to Richard Brittain Kent Regional Residents 25.10.24
26 October 2024
2 November 2024
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