Dozens of council homes overdue safety checks

Dozens of Crawley council homes are overdue "important" electrical safety checks, some by as much as 10 years.

Crawley Borough Council's audit committee was told on Monday that 143 homes were still overdue an inspection as of the end of January 2025.

Councillors raised concerns at the meeting even though nearly 1,200 of the council's 8,000 properties had been overdue an inspection in March 2023.

The council's head of governance, people and performance, Siraj Choudhury, said work was under way to secure access to homes so safety checks could be done.

The local authority can access council houses to carry out safety checks once advanced warning has been given to tenants by letter.

But a report submitted to the committee said there is "no evidence available" that the council is passing cases to its legal department if residents deny access to contractors.

Councillor Tina Belben said that electrical safety was "so important" and the council "would be jumping up and down" if a social housing company had a similar number of overdue safety checks.

According to the January report some fire safety assessments at council homes were also overdue, but Mr Choudhury told councillors that the local authority is "100% compliant" as of mid-February.

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