Nearly £1m earmarked for private experts to meet safety deadlines

Dudley Council is set to spend nearly £1m on private consultants to avoid possible jail for officers after regulators identified building safety breaches.

The authority has published a draft decision which is set to be confirmed on June 11 approving £805,500 (plus VAT) to pay building safety and compliance consultants Caldiston.

Caldiston will oversee the council’s response to regulatory and enforcement notices until the end of March 2027.

Dudley was served with a regulatory notice from the social housing regulator in 2023 after referring itself to the watchdog for failing to meet statutory health and safety requirements in some of its homes.

The council was also served with three enforcement notices from the Building Safety Regulator in January 2026 and six contravention letters in March 2026.

The council does not currently employ sufficient expert staff to comply with the notices before deadlines imposed by the regulators.

The council also expects further notices to be issued during the year as reviews take place in more high rise blocks.

Serious and persistent breaches of building safety regulations are criminal offences which can result in unlimited fines and/or imprisonment for up to two years for officers or even directors if connivance or neglect is identified.

In March the regulator concluded the council had not carried out adequate inspections in three high-rise blocks; Kennedy Court and Baylie Court in Stourbridge and Tenbury House in Halesowen.

The regulator found the fire risk assessment in Baylie Court was not suitable or sufficient while a structural safety report was based on nothing more than visual inspections of the ground and first floors. 

Speaking in March 2026, the then Dudley cabinet member for  cabinet member for development and regulation, Cllr Phil Atkins, said: “The notices have been served under new legislation. 

“This is a widespread national issue; we are not alone in receiving such notices and this work feeds into our plan for addressing the needs of all our high-rise blocks.

“This does not mean the buildings are in a dangerous state.”

The cost of the consultants will be met from the ring-fenced Housing Revenue Account rather than the council’s general funds.