A massive London-wide housing scandal has been – and is being – exposed by tenants / residents who have been asking two very simple Freedom of Information questions of their council landlords:
- How much have you received in rent from people living on our estate?
- How much money have you spent on maintenance of our estate?
The answers include – in one case – more than SIXTEEN MILLION QUID being spent on legal fees in just three years – where the council hadn’t done repairs.
An FOI request made to Lambeth in January 2022 said that according to this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PA… £710,000 was spent from Lambeth council’s Housing Revenue Account on Central Hill estate, Crystal Palace in the financial year April 1st 2020 – March 31st 2021. 2021.
But in the same document, received from the Public Inspection in July – Aug 2021, for the fiscal year, 2020 – 2021, it stated that £1.2m based on occupancy of 234 properties, which is under-occupied. The FOI question was simple: Could you tell me where the £500,000 difference was spent?
An answer from Lambeth the following month said:
The £710,000 highlighted in the previous document is spend on repairs, voids and technical services. The £1.2m is the total billable income for the 234 highlighted properties but this income is used for all elements of spend in the HRA and not just for repairs to properties. It covers, for example, staffing costs, debt charges and depreciation as well.
Income from all HRA properties in Lambeth is treated as a single budgeted amount and is not ringfenced for spend specifically on those properties, so it is not possible to tie the £1.2m of billable income to specific items of expenditure. The income is used to manage all of the HRA housing stock.
Another FOI request shows that Lambeth council have spent more than SIXTEEN MILLION pounds of Housing Revenue Account money on legal fees involving cases where they hadn’t carried out repairs.
Please could you confirm that legal costs and any payment awarded for a repair claim from a tenant or leaseholder comes out of the Housing Revenue Account? If not, could you inform me where it comes from?
Please could you say how much has been paid in such payments over the past three years?
Lambeth’s responses: 1) I can confirm that it comes from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).
| 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
| £ 3,179,652 | £ 4,428,519 | £ 8,737,339 |
In Southwark, Nunhead estate TRA (tenants / residents association) say figures obtained under the FOI Act suggest the council “have likely made a surplus of more than £3 million from our estate over the last 10 years – around 50 per cent of the income from rent and service charge.
“In the last 10 years the estate has generated £5,669,902.19 in rent and service charge, cost £1,026,230.62 in major works and cost around £1,417,475.55 in repairs (the last one based on an estimate from last year’s figures).
“That leaves a surplus of more than £3 million. “That £3m+ surplus went into the Housing Revenue Account, which in theory pays for admin and new buildings (although some of the admin is already factored into the figures above). “Here’s how the HRA is being run:
- “Works… budgeted at £5.9m ended up costing more than £10m”
- “Gross mismanagement, negligence, maladministration…you name it, it’s here”
- “[There are] disciplinary proceedings against some individuals connected to this” and
- “possibility of launching a fraud investigation”
London SE1 Community Website @se1 Nov 29, 2023____________________________________________
…and how to find out what’s being spent on your estate…
- Because the mortgage is paid off, they actually make money for the council in rent and service charges. To find out more, you can request the accounts for your estate here: WhatDoTheyKnow (Free to join – Ed.):
- Ask for a breakdown of income and expenditure over a fixed time. (Five or 10 yrs is a good starting point)
- Possible template email below:
NEWS FROM CRYSTAL PALACE 