Babergh is taking action to improve their Building Services - which maintain their council housing - and urgently resolve a number of issues.

The council began a programme of work to improve the service last summer, and in-depth assessments arising from this work subsequently identified issues around health and safety compliance. 

Of 6,788 homes, 344 do not currently have up-to-date electrical safety reports. Gas inspections are also overdue on 92 properties, and asbestos reinspection surveys are not up-to-date on 33 homes.

Urgent work to address the issues is already underway – including additional inspections, an overhaul of existing processes, and obtaining more robust data around health and safety compliance to provide tenants with complete reassurance. 

The council voluntarily referred themselves to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) as soon as they became aware of the issues and contacted all its tenants.

The RSH has now confirmed the council's findings and issued a Regulatory Notice, meaning it will monitor the councils and meet regularly until it is assured sustainable, long-term improvements are embedded.

The regulator has confirmed it does not intend to take statutory action against the council because an urgent programme of work is already in place to rectify the problems.

The councils are confident their action plan will promptly result in full compliance with the required standards but welcome the support of the regulator in ensuring that robust procedures and practices are embedded.

Tenants at every home where an additional inspection is required have already been contacted.

John Ward, Babergh District Council leader, said: "It is disappointing to find ourselves in this position, but we are doing everything we can to address these issues as quickly as we can.

 "As a responsible landlord, we referred ourselves to the regulator at the earliest stage to seek guidance and will be taking every possible step to ensure we are providing the best possible service to tenants in the future."

The council will be writing to all tenants this week to keep them updated about the situation.