A move by one London council to refer itself to the Regulator of Social Housing should be seen as a ‘national scandal’, says a private sector safety law expert.

Phil Turtle of Landlord Licensing & Defence says the Regulator should use its new powers and fine the council as much as the council itself would fine a private landlord – in this case, up to a startling £270m.

Turtle’s calls comes after Labour-controlled Southwark council, which has 36,000 council homes, found that it had not met a new regulatory requirement to carry out electrical safety tests in its properties.

That led to the self-referral to the Regulator which is an independent organisation for regulating the social housing sector.

Turtle says the council should be hit with a fine equivalent to one a landlord in the private rented sector would face.

He says: “Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, any private landlord that failed to do an EICR every five years and who let a property without a valid EICR, would be fined by the very same local authority up to £30,000.

“In terms of the calculation of this fine, every Local Housing Authority has a civil penalty matrix with the axis of ‘Harm’ and ‘Culpability’.

“The harm would be considered as being high as EICRs were introduced specifically because of the significant risks of electrical fires and electric shock/electrocution due to old fashioned, and now inadequate, circuit protection. The culpability would be rated on the landlord’s experience and ability.

“A single property landlord may be rated as low to medium, but a portfolio landlord would have no excuse for not knowing and would be rated at the top of the culpability scale.”

He adds: “A landlord the size of the local authority would expect a fine of at least £25,000, if not the full £30,000 As such, the local housing authority would be imposing fines of 10,000 properties, times – let’s say £27,000 each – which would be £270m.

“Will the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) impose such a fine? Of course not, the council will get a slap on the wrist and no one, particularly the incompetent staff will get away Scott-free.”

Southwark says it is now carrying out the outstanding Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR).

All tenants will be contacted and council leader Kieron Williams says: “We take residents’ safety extremely seriously and are determined to keep raising the quality of our council homes. Whilst we have made real progress – improving our repairs service, tackling damp and making our homes safer from fire – we also have work to do.

“This includes completing these important electrical tests. I apologise for this delay.”