Birmingham housing disrepair: how the UK's second-largest city is failing its tenants

Birmingham is the UK's largest local authority by population. Birmingham City Council is also one of the largest social landlords in England, with around 60,000 homes. Published complaint figures put Birmingham among the areas with the most disrepair complaints, year after year.

The pattern in Birmingham does not change: damp, broken heating, and structural problems reported again and again with nothing done. Many tenants tell us they gave up reporting because nothing changed.

Awaab's Law applies here too

Since October 2025, Birmingham City Council, like every social landlord, must:

• Look into an emergency hazard within 24 hours
• Look into a significant hazard within 10 working days
• Send you a written summary of what they found within 3 working days
• Finish the work within 5 working days of the investigation ending

Much of Birmingham's social housing is mid-rise blocks from the 1960s and 1970s, where damp and mould keep coming back. Many of these homes are waiting for insulation and heating upgrades that have not happened yet. If your home is one of them and your landlord has ignored a report, you have a strong basis for a claim.

Birmingham tenants often contact us about

• Broken communal heating in winter
• Damp and mould, especially in flats above ground floor
• Pests in older blocks
• Roof leaks reported and never fixed
• Adaptations refused for disabled or older tenants

What you can recover

It depends on how bad the disrepair was, how long it lasted, and what it did to your health. Compensation usually includes part of your rent back for the time the home was not fit to live in, money for the stress and hassle, and the cost of anything the problem ruined.

Real cases show how seriously this is now taken: an independent statutory ruling ordered Birmingham City Council to pay £4,450 after it failed to fix a leak for four years.

You can also recover:

• The repair actually getting done
• The cost of ruined belongings, like clothes and electronics
• Higher energy bills caused by broken heating

You don't have to fight Birmingham City Council alone

Call free on 0800 030 4669. We'll tell you straight if you've got a case.

You can also use Birmingham City Council's own complaints procedure. You don't need to use Support for Tenants. If you choose to use us: No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.

Source: council social-housing stock figures are published in the Local Authority Housing Statistics, GOV.UK.

Support For Tenants is a trading name of Cyntex Group Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as a Claims Management Company. FRN 1020217. Registered in England and Wales.