Keeping your home safe
Highlights of the year
In November, we welcomed Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood to our French, Finch and Margaret blocks to view the fire safety works we are carrying out.
The works, being undertaken for us by Higgins Group, involve removing the existing insulation and replacing it with non-combustible materials. In addition, the timber decking will be replaced with fire-safe aluminium decking. The project is expected to last 18 months and is due to be completed by October 2026.
The work to the leasehold homes has been funded by the Government's Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS), and no costs have been passed onto homeowners. We are funding approximately £2.34 million for the works to the social rented homes because they are not eligible for the additional government funding, as the works contract was in place before the funding was announced.
Alongside our remediation programme, and regular safety checks, we've been listening to what makes you feel safe at home, sharing what we do, and implementing changes:
- We've been sharing much more, and more often, about our safety checks in Wandle News
- Our housing officers have been meeting more of you at home, so you can let us know about any problems
- We've introduced a new approach to checking door entry systems
- We've introduced a new, standalone pest control policy
- We've also reflected what you told us in our repairs improvements.
Learnings and improvements this year
We continue to focus on our relationships with managing agents. Many Wandle residents live in homes where a different organisation carries out safety works and delivers services. This can make it more challenging for us to make sure everything is in place than for those blocks that we wholly manage.
What we are focussing on in 2026/27
In 2026/27 we’re continuing to deliver our remediation programme for blocks that need works to external wall systems (such as cladding) and keeping these residents updated.
We’re also working on our next 5-year asset management strategy. This covers building safety as well as setting out how we meet out net-zero responsibilities, our approach to the decent home standard, and how we plan ahead for works that will need doing in 5, 10, 20 years time.
If you’d like to be involved in the consultation on this new strategy, you can let us know by clicking the button below to email us – we’ll be in touch soon.
2025/26 Compliance checks in date
Gas safety checks
Water safety checks
Fire safety checks
Lift safety checks
Asbestos safety checks
*Some of these measures are lower than they have been in previous years. While we’ve maintained strong performance, buildings with a managing agent in place have brought our overall percentages down. We’re working hard to address this, and make sure that all safety checks are in place and in date.
We're also reviewing our approach to access issues - where we've tried to carry out a check but not been able to. This includes looking at if there is more we can to do support residents to enable access. We hope this will support us to do even better next year.
Satisfaction that your home is safe
Last year (2024/25)
This year
Higher than target: 68%