At least four homes in Richmond borough’s social housing stock do not meet the government’s standard, and dozens of residents have sought councillors’ help after anti-social behaviour and noise complaints were not solved by their housing association.

Residents in the borough’s housing association properties faced a raft of problems this year, and Richmond council’s Tenants’ Champion, Councillor Jane Boulton said she helped 60 residents in conflicts with their housing association.

In her annual report, Cllr Boulton also said in one case a couple who had complained of poor sound insulation for five years were dismissed by their housing association, who assumed their home was built up to code.

She said: “In February 2016 the Tenants’ Champion Service was approached to support a couple living in a flat who had been suffering noise nuisance since 2011 which was having a great impact on their lives.

“The couple felt that poor sound insulation in the building together with some anti-social behaviour by a neighbour resulted in noise nuisance.

“The complaint of poor sound insulation was initially dismissed by the housing association as they thought that the building would have met building regulations when constructed.

“This was subsequently found not to be the case.”

Whereas typically local authorities manage social housing, all of in Richmond borough’s is owned and run by private sector housing associations.

All social housing must, however, meet the decent homes standard, a government measure used to understand the condition of the country’s housing stock.

The department for communities and local government monitor the decent homes standard; and in Richmond borough over 99% of housing association homes meet this standard, the council said.

But one of the borough’s largest housing associations, L&Q, admitted four of their homes do not meet the decent homes standard.

An L&Q spokesman said: “There are currently four homes in the borough that have been identified for renovation work to bring them back up to the Decent Homes Standard.

“This work is underway, as part of our ongoing maintenance and improvement programme across London.”

The leader of Richmond council’s opposition, Gareth Roberts said the council does not do enough to oversee and scrutinise the housing associations.

He said: “While we are supportive of the work being done by the Tenant's Champion, the report does raise serious concerns regarding properties available to tenants in this borough.

“Although it was a Liberal Democrat administration which devolved the borough's housing to control by housing associations, we ensured that there was proper oversight and scrutiny from the council to ensure tenants were well looked after.

“I'm afraid that over the last few years the Tories have effectively jettisoned much of those protections leaving the Tenants' Champion with an almost impossible task.”

Richmond Housing Partnership declined to comment, because the cases highlighted in the Tenants’ Champion report could not be attributed to the company, and Thames Valley Housing Association said it assesses each of its properties every five years.

The Guinness Partnership said all its existing homes met the decent homes standard.