Work to improve council housing in Greenwich and invest in safe and secure homes has been recognised today (25 February 2026) by the Regulator of Social Housing.
The national body which oversees council housing has lifted its regulatory notice, which was put in place after we identified some issues and self-referred in 2022.
The decision reflects the significant progress the council has made to complete up-to-date health and safety assessments for electrical, fire, asbestos and legionella - which has resulted in the notice being formally lifted by the Regulator.
Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Cllr Anthony Okereke, said: “This announcement reflects the laser focus we’ve had over the past four years to make sure our council residents have access to a safe and secure home that meets national safety standards.
“Our £430m Housing Our Greenwich plan, has already begun to overhaul thousands of kitchens, bathrooms, roofs and windows and we’ve committed over £50 million of that to make more of our council homes warmer, healthier and safer for our residents.
“No council relishes referring themselves to a regulatory body, but when we recognised that we had fallen short on some areas, we put in place a plan to make sure we put things right. This included appointing a new - and now award-winning - Head of Landlord Safety and Compliance to really drive forward rapid improvements in those areas.
“We’re happy that the Regulator has recognised the incredible progress we have made towards achieving that goal – this is great news for us as one of the largest social landlords in London, but also a fantastic outcome for our residents, who can feel confident in our ability to provide them and their families with safe and secure homes to live in.”
Since 2022, the council has put in place a robust and accelerated action plan to address outstanding actions and updated the Regulator regularly on the progress being made.
The improvements have now resulted in the following outcomes as of January 2026:
- 100% electrical testing for communal areas
- 94.5% completion of electrical testing to 19,284 homes
- 100% completion of all fire risk assessments across our homes to ensure that homes meet the highest safety standards
- 100% completion of confirmatory checks and upgrades to over 19,000 homes to ensure that smoke alarms are installed.
- 100% asbestos surveys and resurveying programme.
- 100% on legionella risk assessment programme.
- We’ve also improved internal systems to ensure we have the correct policies and procedures in place to ensure continuous compliance.
- We also have new data systems that give us the ability to track, monitor and manage our housing stock more effectively.
Cllr Pat Slattery, Cabinet Member for Housing Management, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness, said: “This outcome is great news and reflects the hard work of everyone working in our housing safety and compliance team to bring about much-needed improvement in the assessments we now hold on all of our council homes.
“We’re never complacent - there is more to do - but I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to rise to the challenge and are in a much better place than we were four years ago. We will continue to put our investment towards making even further improvements in our housing to meet the expectations our residents quite rightly deserve from us as their landlord.”