Your Questions Answered - Tenant and Leaseholder Conference 2026
Thank you for submitting you questions for the Q&A panel we have captured any questions that weren't answered on the day and provided a response.
Question:
What would happen if I were to die and I have a dependant who has additional needs?
Answer:
We understand this is a very difficult thing to think about. If a Sandwell Council tenant passes away, the tenancy may sometimes be taken over by another person – this is called ‘succession’. More information is available on our website.
If you’re planning future care for a loved one, please contact our Housing Solutions Team and Adult Social Care – they can advise on supported housing and other help.
Question:
What provisions are in place for people who have multiple disbilities when contacting the council?
Answer:
Sandwell Council is committed to making sure the way we work does not place anyone at a disadvantage when accessing its services. We use something called the Reasonable Adjustments policy, although this does not outline how we will approach every situation it is intended to act as a general statement of our policy and:
- Outlines our commitment to improving accessibility for all our customers.
- Sets out some of the basic principles of our commitment to provide reasonable adjustments for people.
- Outlines the considerations that we will take into account in dealing with requests for reasonable adjustments.
- States contact details for requesting further details or to raise any matter relating to reasonable adjustments and improving accessibility.
- Outlines the monitoring and review process for the policy.
- The policy applies to all Sandwell Council customers and tenants.
More information can be found here.
Question:
Why has SMBC failed to identify and implement RPEEP for tenants at in high rise blocks?
Answer:
Residents who live in Sandwell Council high rise flats who are unable to get out of the building unaided in an emergency can have a PEEP assessment. This includes tenants and occupants, leaseholders, and tenants of leaseholders. You can call 0121 569 7474 (Option 1) or email housing_hub@sandwell.gov.uk to request a visit from your housing services officer.
https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/housing/personal-emergency-evacuation-plan-peep
Question:
Why is it so hard to get a meeting with trading standards?
Answer:
If you are a consumer and want to make a complaint, report a trader, or get advice on other consumer matters, please contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133.
Alternatively, please follow the link below for online services and guidance: Contact the consumer service - Citizens Advice
Details of all consumer contacts received by the Citizens Advice Consumer Service are available to Trading Standards.
All enquiries and complaints made by a resident of the Borough of Sandwell, or concerning a business based within the Borough, will be shared with us for intelligence purposes. The information you provide is reviewed and risk assessed to enable us to target our resources in the most effective way.
We are not able to respond to individual queries.
It is important that all complaints are referred to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service as they maintain a National Database of complaints and this provides an invaluable source of information and intelligence to the Trading Standards community.
Question:
Where is the simple public housing KPI dashboard that lets tenants, auditor groups, ordinary residents see the baseline target, current performance and direction of travel for repairs, repairs backlog, voids, complaints, damp and mould, decent homes, building safely, stock surveys and the C3 improvement plan?
If allowed: If you say tenants are empowered to securitise the housing service, what exactly are they supposed to scrutinise if the operational KPI’s targets and current performance aren’t brought together and published information an ordinary tenant can understand?
Answer:
Thank you for your feedback
While we do not currently have public dashboards with this data, we do publish performance information via this webpage https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/homepage/92/housing-performance
We encourage Tenants and Leaseholders to get involved and help improve our services and we have a number of opportunities, more information can be found via the link below https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/tenant-engagement
Question:
Why are there no public toilets in the park?
Splash pads: what’s the process for residents to campaign for something like this. Who ultimately makes the decision about a facility being funded and delivered?
Answer:
We're proud to have 17 Green Flag-awarded parks as well as many other green spaces in Sandwell. More information about facilities can be found on the Visit Sandwell Website
https://www.visitsandwell.com/things-to-see-and-do/searchresults?sr=1&cat=catg164551401
Sandwell council allows residents to submit petitions, Petitions allow individuals, community groups and organisations to raise issues of local concern directly with councillors. More information about the petitions scheme can be found by the following link.
https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/council/petitions
Question:
Social housing should be for decent law abiding people while do I keep hearing stories from my members about high level of anti-social behaviour and criminality social housing should not be given to criminalised people how does this happen and can it be made easier to get rid of them
Answer:
We have strict rules about who can get a council home, and we take anti-social behaviour very seriously.
Sandwell Council uses a special team called the Housing Inclusions Panel. They check anyone applying for a home who has a history of crime or bad behaviour. If an applicant has a history of serious crime or severe anti-social behaviour, they are banned from joining the housing register.
Question:
Is there still a 90-day completion on repairs?
Answer:
The Council prioritise repairs based on Urgency: Emergency Repairs within 24hrs, Urgent Repairs within 3 working days, Priority Repairs within 25 working days and Routine Repairs within 90 working days
More information about repairs and examples of the types of repairs can be found at the following link https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/downloads/file/4942/quick-guide-housing-repairs
Question:
Do you get in touch with tenants if your property is unliveable due to over outstanding repairs
Answer:
If extensive outstanding repairs make a property difficult or unsafe to live in, the Council may contact and support the household. The policy also provides for temporary or permanent moves (known as decants) where a home is no longer safe to occupy or where major works cannot be completed with the tenant remaining in the property.
The policy does not specifically state that routine contact will be made solely because a property has multiple outstanding repairs. However, Housing Officers may identify concerns during HomeChecks and raise issues with the appropriate teams, particularly where repairs are affecting a tenant's health, safety or wellbeing. This can help ensure the household receives the right support and that any necessary action is considered.
Question:
How frequently are ratings reviewed by the social regulator of social housing, how repairs and how are repairs monitored if repair man leave cases open if it is incomplete?
Answer:
We share data with the regulator on a regular basis.
Repair records are maintained by the Council and its contractors to record reported issues, inspections, works completed and any follow-up actions required. Tenants are expected to report repairs promptly and the Council monitors the quality of completed work through post-work inspections and audits
Quesion:
Does the council carry out any kind of quality control and its repairs IE follow-up visits on checking back on issues such as damp with a successful outcome may not become apparent immediately if not then does it think it would be helpful to
Answer:
Yes. Sandwell Council carries out quality control checks on completed repairs. The policy states that post-work inspections are undertaken on 10% of completed repair jobs, either through a telephone audit or a physical inspection. The Council may also increase the frequency of inspections where quality concerns are identified.
The Council encourages residents to report any ongoing issues.
Question:
Who is responsible for subcontractors when they go wrong seeing as they originally employed by the council.
Answers:
If a contractor or subcontractor is carrying out repairs on behalf of the Council, Sandwell Council remains responsible for ensuring the work is completed to the required standard and will monitor the quality of repairs through inspections and audits. If you are unhappy with work completed by a contractor or subcontractor, you should report this to the Council so it can be investigated and any issues put right. The Council also has a formal complaints process if concerns cannot be resolved informally.
Question:
Is there social behaviour assistance from council for deaf, blind and other communications issues lack of face to face to support flowing commercial bins overflowing commercial bins noted that other people are using them other than the flats designated?
Answer:
Sandwell Council is committed to ensuring that no one is disadvantaged when accessing our services. To support this, we have a Reasonable Adjustments Policy. While the policy cannot cover every individual circumstance, it provides a framework for how we approach requests for reasonable adjustments and:
- Sets out our commitment to improving accessibility for all customers.
- Explains the key principles that guide our approach to providing reasonable adjustments.
- Describes the factors we consider when assessing requests for reasonable adjustments.
- Provides details on how to request further information or raise matters relating to accessibility and reasonable adjustments.
- Outlines how the policy is monitored and reviewed.
- The policy applies to all Sandwell Council customers and tenants.
More information can be found here. https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/housing/reasonable-adjustments-policy
Question:
Does the regulator consider it good enough that tenants have though TSM pages complaints would create committee papers and improvement plans website pages to establish their landlord’s performance or would you expect a C3 landlord to make it improvement KPIs available to tenants tenants satisfaction
Answer:
Thank you for your feedback.
We publish a range of performance information on our Housing Performance webpage, including our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), Annual Reports for Tenants and complaints performance data:
https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/homepage/92/housing-performance
The Regulator of Social Housing expects landlords to provide tenants with accessible information about performance and how services are being improved. We believe the information we publish helps tenants understand our performance, scrutinise our services and hold us to account.
We also encourage tenants and leaseholders to get involved in shaping and improving our services through our tenant engagement opportunities:
https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/tenant-engagement
We will continue to review the information we make available to ensure it meets the needs of our tenants and leaseholders.