Dudley Council defends spending £800,000 on consultants

At a meeting of the authority’s Housing and Assets Scrutiny Committee on July 14, councillors debated a decision to appoint external experts after the council was hit with notices from the housing regulator relating to breaches of housing legislation.

The total cost of paying consultants adds up to £805,000 plus VAT which Dudley cabinet member for development and regulation, Cllr Daniel Bevan, says is money well spent.

Cllr Bevan said: “The decision was taken to secure specialist building safety and compliance expertise while the council was still dealing with significant regulatory requirements.

“This isn’t consultancy for convenience, it is a time limited and necessary intervention to maintain continuity, meet regulatory demands, support tenant safety and fill a gap in expertise while we move towards a stronger and more permanent operating model.

“I welcome scrutiny but my view is the risk of not securing these skills was significantly greater than the cost of doing it.”

The committee was also told around 70 percent of local authorities had been affected by changes in the law relating to housing standards and there was a significant shortage of experts to ensure compliance with new legislation.

The first regulatory notices on buildings were issued to Dudley Council in April 2023 at which point there were a number of problems including 8,000 outstanding fire risk assessments, 4,004 outstanding domestic electrical safety checks and 18,284 non-compliant smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.

All the outstanding issues have been resolved apart from seven electrical safety tests which are in properties where tenants are not allowing council officers access to their premises.

A report signed by Kathryn Jones, Dudley group director of housing and assets, said: “The council has moved from a position of identified issues to one of demonstrable control, strengthened assurance, and improving outcomes.”