A Labour council outspoken in its criticism of private landlords has been slammed for failing thousands of its own social housing tenants.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has graded Southwark Council at C3, which means its “judgement is that there are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed”. 

C3 is the second worst rating and follows the regulator finding evidence that the council was failing to meet legal requirements for health and safety in tenants’ homes and communal areas.  

The council is the landlord of 36,800 homes, making it the largest landlord in London. 

The RSH said that more than 50% of Southwark’s properties were without smoke alarms. In addition there were almost 2,000 overdue fire safety issues in properties, of which 100 were categorised as high risk.

Kieron Williams, the council leader, says: “I want to apologise to tenants who have been let down. We will continue to drive up the quality of our services and homes for you. Whilst we have made progress we know there is much more to do.  

“We will be making sure our action plan delivers the improvements that the regulator has identified. We’re investing over £250m over the next three years to make our homes safe and decent.  

“We’re improving our repairs, complaints and housing allocations services and establishing a new Housing Management Board – with tenants round the table – so you can hold us to account.”