Extraordinary Council Meeting Called to Discuss Serious Failures in Southwark’s Housing

Southwark Liberal Democrats have successfully called an extraordinary Council Assembly meeting to discuss the Regulator of Social Housing’s findings of “serious failings” in Southwark’s housing department.

Southwark Labour Council has been criticised by the Regulator of Social Housing for shocking failings in tenant safety and housing standards. Half of council homes lack basic safety checks, with 2,000 overdue fire safety actions—100 of which are classed as high risk—and 30% of homes failing to meet the Decent Homes Standard. Tenants face delays to repairs, poor communication, and a lack of accountability, leaving their safety and dignity neglected. The damning findings even drew the attention of the Government, who expressed “concern” in response.

This comes after the Labour Mayor had initially refused such a meeting, and opposition councillors were told to “shut up” by another Labour councillor when they attempted to raise the issue at a different meeting. 

Following an appeal to the council’s non-political top legal officer, the grounds for calling the meeting were found to be valid and reasonable, and an extraordinary meeting of all councillors will now have to be held on 26 February 2025. 

An extraordinary meeting of the council is exceptionally rare; as far as can be ascertained, it has not happened in this way in Southwark for 15 years.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader Cllr Victor Chamberlain said: 

“It’s essential that there is political accountability for the shocking failures exposed by the regulator. How can residents trust the same council leadership and cabinet members responsible for creating this mess to be capable of fixing it?

Instead of taking responsibility, Labour has blocked scrutiny at every turn—even telling opposition councillors to ‘shut up’ when they tried to raise these concerns. Forcing this extraordinary meeting demonstrates just how far we have to go just to get Labour to face the consequences of their incompetence. 

We will use the meeting to stand up for residents who have been failed by London’s worst landlord, and call for those responsible to resign”