The following letter has been sent to council tenants and leaseholders in November 2023:

Housing audit

As your landlord, the safety of your home is of the upmost importance to us, and we are expected to routinely carry out inspections and repairs of all our properties.  We recently carried out an independent audit with the help of an external specialist to help us understand what additional work might be required.

We did this because we wanted to ensure that we are doing all that we can to keep you safe in your home and saw this independent assessment as a positive step to giving us confidence that we are providing you with a home that reaches the demanding standards that we set.

The independent audit was extremely thorough and has highlighted some key areas where further work is needed to provide the assurance and high standards required of the council as your landlord.

Plans are now in place to deal with these areas, and we have already started on the improvement actions, but it was clear that right now, we are not able to demonstrate that we meet the required building safety compliance standards.

What did the audit find?

The audit found that the council’s property management framework, which should provide assurance that compliance and building safety are being delivered and managed was not as effective as it could be. Record keeping and reporting mechanisms were not providing a clear audit trail of routine or follow-up maintenance being carried out. This in turn, means that we are not able to demonstrate that we are meeting legal and obligatory requirements.

It also found that we need to improve our communication with you and make sure that we are sharing our awareness and information updates about each of the compliance areas more regularly.

What are we doing?

After receiving the audit report the council has responded quickly, developing a comprehensive action plan, which sets out how we will go about improving our building safety work and when these improvements will be completed by. This will be supported by a new governance framework to oversee all this work, checking, and monitoring our progress. Your Housing Officer and local Councillor have also been made aware of this issue.

The Council has also referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing, the government appointed national body which oversees landlords like us.

This self-referral demonstrates that we are clear about the need to make improvements and provides an opportunity for us to keep you updated with our progress.

What happens next?

The Regulator will investigate our approach to building safety compliance to see whether it meets the building safety standards required of us and whether there is evidence of any impact on you our tenants and leaseholders. I will keep in touch with you to let you know how we are getting on with our improvement work.

Get in touch:

We understand that you might have more questions about this news. You can find further information on our website: www.warwickdc.gov.uk/housingaudit If you have any further questions, please call us on 01926 456442.

If you need this letter in another format or language, please contact media@warwickdc.gov.uk

We are moving offices:

Please note that from 7 January 2024 if you wish to write to Warwick District Council the postal address will move from:

PO Box 2175
Riverside House
Milverton Hill
LEAMINGTON SPA
CV32 5QE

To: Town Hall
Parade
LEAMINGTON SPA
CV32 5HZ

In person enquiries remain at Riverside House but will be changing in early 2024. We will notify you by post and via Council social media channels when this changes.