Labour-run Lambeth asks for £40 million government bailout to fix 'perilous' housing
26 February 2025, 14:50
The government has been asked to hand £40 million to a Labour-run south London council accused of ‘severe maladministration’.
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Lambeth Council says it needs the ‘emergency’ cash to plug a huge budget shortfall in its housing division.
In 2023, the Housing Ombudsman accused the south London council of ‘severe maladministration’ in its housing services, with severe delays to repairs and poor handling of complaints.
The south London administration has also been forced to fork out more than more than £16 million in compensation to council house tenants for poor quality homes and bad service since 2017, Freedom of Information requests have revealed.
The council’s housing division spent an additional £7.2 million on legal costs so far this financial year, The Times reports.
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Matthew Bryant, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, said: “It is quite clear that Lambeth’s housing is in a perilous position.
“But before the council seeks to use an accounting trick with uncertain consequences, Lambeth tenants deserve to know that the housing division is being managed properly. The amount spent on legal fees alone is staggering and needs to be explained.”
Lambeth, London’ second-largest social housing landlord, says it has been disproportionately hit by a rent cap and strict building regulations.
The borough has 23,600 socially rented homes and more high-rise blocks than most other parts of the capital.
Danny Adilypour, the councillor responsible for Lambeth’s social housing, told The Times: “The council is committed to making sure council housing is up to as high a standard as possible, is repaired promptly when needed and meets the needs of residents.
“But we’ve been working with one arm tied behind our backs.”He added: “The previous government-imposed caps and limits on our rental income, but without providing extra funding to make up the gap, which of course means there’s not enough money available to do all of the work on our estates that we know we need to.”
“Housing in Lambeth is ageing and needs investment, with most of our council homes being flats that are on average more than 60 years old. It’s a really difficult situation which is why we have been working closely with the new government to find a way forward.”
Lambeth appeared to make some progress in November, when the regulator found that its housing services are meeting its consumer standards for people renting from the council.
Councillor Danny Adilypour, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Housing said: “We have been working hard to improve council housing services, and therefore welcome the finding released today by the regulator which found Lambeth is meeting social housing regulatory standards for our tenants.
However, he admitted the council ‘still have a lot of work to do to improve our delivery of repairs and complaint handling.'
"We’re determined to make improvements so that repairs are delivered quickly and easily and done right the first time around as often as possible,’ he added.
Meanwhile, Lambeth also handed out a record 392,341 penalty charge notices (PCNs) to drivers and motorcyclists who entered the LTN's closed roads since they were introduced in 2020.
If all fines were paid at the full £130 rate - the council would receive more than £50million over the four years since the controversial zones were brought in.
The figures obtained by the Telegraph using Freedom of Information requests show that no fines were issued to vehicles entering no-traffic zones between 2015 and 2018, a so-called Code 52M contravention.
