East Kent Housing deal could be axed and overpayment ‘fraud’ case considered against former contractors

Thanet council

The future of East Kent Housing, which manages social housing for Thanet, Canterbury, Folkestone and Hythe, and Dover councils, will be discussed by Thanet councillors this month – including the possibility of a criminal case due to overpayments which could ‘constitute fraud.’

Earlier this month it was revealed that hundreds of council property tenants across east Kent had been awaiting gas safety certificates due to overdue Landlord Gas Safety Register assessments.

It then emerged that there were also grave concerns over potential further issues with electrical certification, lifts, fire safety and legionella testing.

The issue of electrical safety certification was first raised by former Thanet councillor Suzanne Brimm some three years ago.

At a full council meeting on Thursday (July 11) Thanet Labour Party leader Rick Everitt said a list of failings outlined at EKH, included overpayments running to £1million across the four councils to contractors P&R – responsible for area including provision for annual Landlord Gas Safety Record (LGSR) inspections, emergency repairs and boiler replacements and an annual programme of routine boiler upgrades.

EKH told Thanet council that at the end of March 2019 there were 19 isle properties with an overdue LGSR. These were understood to relate to access difficulties and EKH were instructed to resolve the cases as soon as possible.

In May EKH advised verbally that all 19 had been completed, although that turned out to be incorrect. EKH have alleged that P&R provided them with false information about the 19 cases.

By May 20 Thanet had 133 properties without the correct gas safety certification. This was eventually brought down to 10 at the start of this month.

Cllr Everitt said: “The situation with the gas safety certificates is concerning and puts our residents at risk. There are gross failings of governance and management at EKH. This council is responsible in law for EKH failings.

“Our officers were initially misled by EKH about the gas certificates outstanding, P&R overpayments run to £1million across the four councils. What was TDC doing?

“Cabinet will consider (EKH’s) future on July 25. Can the leader (Bob Bayford) confirm as far as Thanet is concerned it does not have one?”

Cllr Bayford confirmed all options will be discussed at the July 25 meeting.

Health and Safety Executive

A report due to go to Cabinet members states that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is involved with the case and a letter from the Regulator for Social Housing sent to local authorities in May spells out that it is the responsibility of the Local Authority to ensure that the Health and Safety standards are met even if the service is contracted out to an Arms Length Management Organisation (in this case East Kent Housing).

The report also says Thanet and the other three councils have “sought joint legal advice and could pursue criminal action if it is decided that the overcharging would constitute fraud.”

P&R has terminated its contract with EKH and work is currently being undertaken by Swale Heating.

The report to Cabinet members says: “P&R has claimed there are amounts outstanding and written to all four councils demanding payment for sums that do not appear to have been invoiced and do not correspond to any of the figures provided by EKH. TDC has asked P&R for clarification and relevant invoice numbers which have not been provided. The other three councils have also received letters from P&Rs legal representatives, although TDC has not,  most likely because disputed amounts are smaller.

“These issues have been discussed with the other councils and joint legal advice has been commissioned about the options for the recovery of overpaid amounts, how best to protect the councils’ respective positions and whether the overcharging would constitute fraud. This process may lead to formal legal or criminal action or independent arbitration, depending upon the advice and the strength of the evidence upon detailed examination.”

The overpayments centre on:

  • £530k – This sum has been acknowledged and accepted by P&R and is being set off against contract payments.
  • £353k – EKH have advised that this sum was being treated as a payment on account/payment in advance and that P&R would inspect all properties at the next service visit, evidence work carried out and provide the certification required under the contracts. However the early termination of the contract meant that this was insufficient time to complete this work and this amount is now viewed as an overpayment, although it is disputed by P&R.
  • £596k – EKH advised that this sum related to services, such as co-located administrators and resident liaison officers, where evidence of the service had not been provided. P&R strongly disputes this sum and have argued that these services were provided, from a different location.

East Kent Housing (EKH) was launched on 1 April 2011. There have been concerns about its asset management since it was established and in particular concerns about procurement and contract management.

These problems have mainly been over failures to follow proper procurement processes and include requests for waivers to contract standing orders to allow contract extension, direct awards, and retrospective approvals. Due to the concerns the four councils agreed to an improvement plan for EKH which included extra funding. EKH was given from April 1 this year until September 30, 2020 to improve.

Further concerns

But the gas certification failures have raised questions about the reliability of data and the performance of EKH in other areas such as the electrical certification. These areas are being audited and initial findings reveal more failings.

The report to councillors states: “Continued service failures of this nature are not acceptable which inevitably starts to raise questions about further control and improvement measures that can be applied to the services delivered by EKH.

“The council has undertaken an immediate direct intervention. The intervention involved a TDC officer task force, investigating health and safety management and reporting across the range of services provided by EKH to the council’s tenants, inspecting key buildings and relevant health and safety files. The findings of this intervention will inform the next steps, including the potential to replace the current management of EKH or withdraw responsibility for the delivery of specific areas of the service from EKH.”

Removing management

Immediate measure may involve removing members of EKH management. This would be part of a short-term intervention which the council says is “essential to secure the required improvements.”

The report adds: “In the longer term, the councils also have the authority to remove elements of the service from EKH and deliver it in a different way or terminate the arrangement completely.”

Options being considered include replacing EKH with another provider, returning the service back to the council to manage or retaining EKH but on different terms.

The Thanet Labour Party are backing the option to bring services in-house.

Working hard

East Kent Housing say: “We’ve been working hard to ensure gas certificate are up to date, and the backlog is almost cleared. We are working with our four councils and their contractors to identify any other issues and ensure they are fixed as quickly as possible.”

15 Comments

  1. They are a disgrace, should bring management back to Thanet and local accountability

  2. But surely as a 25% owner of EKH , TDC had/has a responsibility to oversee what was going on and so should be held accountable for allowing the failures to occur.
    I have an email from a TDC officer in which its accepted that some of TDC’s social housing does not meet the required fire safety standard but as a part owner it can’t prosecute itself.
    The failures were known well before they came to light , just conveniently ignored, so you’re effectively suggesting the management is removed from one incompetent organisation and given to another.
    Not exactly something that inspires confidence.

    • On my investigations. Dover council awarded P & R a £27m contract. This contract started 2 years ago in 2017. The local authorities of Dover, folkestone, Shepway and Thanet formed the first four arms length four district EKH, EAST KENT HOUSING LTD. A government approved scheme, I have seen documents, TDC on the original procurement document state £27m has been given, a yearly payment of £900k.
      I must stress that P & R have a few companies that well one of them DCB [kent] Ltd are linked to Fonseca Yes, money laundering
      I also found out that the section 151 officer would have to raise the invoices. So Rick… Stop hiding the real truth you have been money laundering

  3. Another example of privatisation going wrong. We are always told that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector. But we have had 40+ years of privatisations and we are seeing the results. Care Homes going bust, rail franchises handed back to the government because private companies can’t cope, the Army called in to provide security to the Olympics because the private security company couldn’t get the staff at their wage-rates, “Academies” poorly run by private businessmen and privatised bus companies withdrawing services and isolating entire communities because they can’t make money out of providing a public service. And now we have a company that struggles to check all the Council properties for fire and gas issues.

  4. May I remind people if you follow the company of EKH it consists of councilors of TDC and they should be sacked and in fact EKH is thanet led and they too should get the sack

    • A very fair comment, Rebecca Hooper. TDC councillors were drawing their money for being nodding donkeys with a complete failure to exercise any curiosity or follow up information provided by the then councillor Brimm.
      There is no sign that things have changed.

  5. if you look at companies house records it holds many councilors of TDC that need to be held to account to allow this to happen in the first place
    time to kick you lot out

    time for sackings or better still resign because you as EKH have a responsibility which again officers have given more money to
    that is beside the point TDC you have all your tenants without gas safety certificates

  6. Plus if you are directors of EKH you are as guilty as hell you knew what amount was being given
    how the hell can you allow this to happen is beyond any crime I have known to put peoples lives at risk TDC
    dover
    folkestone
    shepway
    are all in on this. You all knew what the hell was going with money passing over because TDC you have to raise the invoice so you too should be investigated for fraud too

  7. As per usual and across a wide area when a government body be it they NHS / British Rail or councils appoint outside private contractors to do the work the only beneficiaries are the private contractors who rub their hands with glee whilst the biggest losers are the taxpayers.

  8. and you explain to me who is employed by this EKH to receive on top of working as a councilor a pension on top of pension please this needs investigating
    The section 151 officer is told of the risks and the accounts and this needs investigating
    and all at KCC need to be investigated over this too as they are involved
    the money to pay P and R would have to be put as a risk assesment
    I am going to write to the CIPFA and I want all the accounts investigated

  9. Looking at the dates, I believe my property was one of the 19 without an overdue gas safety inspection. I received a letter with an appointment which I could not accommodate due to being at work, so called on the Saturday before the apt to make alternative arrangements, explaining it would need to be after 5pm in the week or on a saturday. The last I spoke to told me they were only a messaging service and she would pass it on. I got home from work on the day of the original appointment to find a card through the door stating a missed apt with another date, so obviously the message had not been passed on. I called again, this time during the week, and was told someone would call me back to make another apt. No-one did, and I arrived home from work on day different to the one on the card, to find another card through the door. I called them, quite irate by this point, and was told again someone would call me back. A few days later I happened to be off sick when a gas inspector turned up and the check was carried out – nearly a month after the original apt date.

    Where the blame lays for this, in my opinion, is with the company contracted to carry out these inspections and their shoddy customer service.

  10. how the heck can you charge yourselves
    thanet council as gaining pension fund money
    how the heck can you all take out loans of almost a quarter of million each to pay for a new single management system this needs exposing and investigating

  11. I have been telling the senior management team and councillors this for years, I am an electrical engineer by trade and not one of these people listened to me,Tory, Labour, UKIP or the independent party, in fact it was because I raised these concerns that I was sacked as a cabinet member and then hounded, bullied and harassed by council, I was threatened with arrest three times last year and it came out in court with the ICO that it was the Monitoring Officer at TDC that was pushing for my prosecution all along .. Go figure

Comments are closed.