Cornwall Council and Cornwall Housing are acting swiftly to reassure tenants that they are taking immediate action to address the findings of two independent reviews which have highlighted a number of areas for improvement.
The authority and Cornwall Housing, which delivers housing services on behalf of Cornwall Council, are writing to all its tenants and leaseholders to set out what is being done.
Corserv Group, a group of diverse businesses owned by the council, commissioned an independent review, with the support of the authority, after concerns were raised around Cornwall Housing’s operational effectiveness.
The recommendations from the report prompted a full audit into health and safety compliance by Cornwall Housing.
While the health and safety audit found that Cornwall Housing did not meet the required standard in several areas, important changes are already being made to address the issues.
The report identified that some electrical inspections were out-of-date and that the systems and records for keeping compliance checks needed improvement.
Cornwall Council said that being overdue with compliance checks does not necessarily mean homes are not safe and that teams are working every day to get back on track with the recommended timetable.
Cornwall Housing is also producing a long-term action plan to improve performance and its Board and the council will assure its effective implementation.
Commenting, the newly appointed Interim Managing Director of Cornwall Housing Limited, Iain Sim said:
“We’re accountable and responsible for the management of 10,500 homes in Cornwall and we take these matters very seriously.
“We are contacting all our tenants and leaseholders to reassure them that we are rapidly addressing the findings in the report, as the safety, health and wellbeing of our residents is our top priority.
“We will make sure we have strong governance from our Board and visible leadership from our managers to resolve the issues in our operations and to improve our performance.
“Importantly, our main focus is to intervene now to bring us back up to safety standards and deliver high quality homes and housing services to the communities of Cornwall.”
Cornwall Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Olly Monk added:
“The council is responsible to tenants for the services provided by Cornwall Housing on its behalf and the health and welfare of residents is our highest priority.
“The findings of these two independent reviews are concerning and the council will be making sure that these issues are addressed urgently.”
