School students as young as eight were among a group of local residents who met with council leaders to discuss improvements to the way repairs are done in Southwark council homes.
Last Tuesday, April 25, 60 community members from Southwark and Peckham Citizens, a local alliance of Citizens UK, gathered at St Luke’s Church in Peckham to raise the alarm about mould, damp and repairs issues in Southwark council homes.
The campaign began back in March, led by students from Notre Dame RC Girls School. They went to the council office to push for action from leaders, their main demand being that each Southwark home has a ‘named’ caretaker to oversee repairs. The leaders they wanted to address were not available that day, but this time they made it.
In attendance were the leader of the council Kieron Williams and Cllr Darren Merrill, Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Homelessness. Council housing directors and the man who oversees the management of the call centre which deals with repairs were also in attendance.
The ‘young leaders’ at Notre Dame school based in Elephant & Castle were joined by primary school pupils from nearby Surrey Square Primary on the Aylesbury Estate, who held up photos of black mould in their homes.
One of the youngest campaigners was eight-year-old Micah, who told the decision-makers: “We have had leaks in our homes. Sometimes these come from the ceiling and sometimes they come from the sink or bath. My friend had to move into her mum’s bed because the leak was so bad in her own bedroom. This went on for six months.”
Nora, a mum of three and co-chair of the meeting, told the room: “I got involved in this campaign because me and my family have been suffering with damp in our home for over a year now.
“The external wall of the living room is completely covered in black mould.
“Despite reporting this to the council repeatedly and having three inspections, nothing has been done to fix it. It is affecting my well-being, but I am also worried about the impact it is having on the health of my three sons, aged 14, 10 and 3.
“And I know that I am not the only mother lying awake at night thinking about these problems.”
Her words were proved right when attendees were invited to add a paper house to a large map of Southwark if they had a repairs issue in their own council home.
At least half of the attendees at the meeting placed homes on the map, showing they are currently experiencing repair issues right now.
Guests also wrote postcards to Cllr Williams, describing their repair problems and asking for help to action them.
Cllr Williams, Cllr Merrill and the other decision-makers listened to residents’ stories.
Responding to the Southwark Citizens’ priorities of making the repairs service more accountable and relational, Cllr Williams committed to sending out information to all council residents telling them the names of their allocated Resident Services Officers (RSO).
Each home has a named RSO and a Community Repairs Officer (for communal areas).
On hearing this, organisers reported that most residents present were unaware of who these officers are, so would welcome this information being shared to each individual home.
Their other proposed plans included sharing the dates of the monthly visit that each estate gets from repairs personnel to see to external maintenance issues.
However, the council would not commit to creating a schedule of visits to see to internal repairs in people’s homes.
In terms of their initial demand for a caretaker – after a cost analysis the council decided that this would not be financially viable.
Cllr Williams did commit to doing all he could to reduce the time that residents have to wait on the phone for the repairs service, and to increase the number of repairs which are ‘done right the first time’ and to schedule.
Cllr Williams insisted that the complaint process would be improved so that complaints were responded to in good time.
Finally, he promised that Cllr Darren Merrill, Cabinet Member for Council Housing, would meet regularly with Southwark Citizens to report on the council’s progress in meeting these targets.
Community Organiser at Southwark Citizens, Albinia Stanley, said: “We have heard the promises – now we want to see action.”
Albinia added that she “looks forward” to meeting regularly with Cllr Merrill and Cllr Williams to keep track of the promised improvements to the repairs service.
“We will continue to organise in our communities until all of our members are living in a house which feels like a home,” she said.