The staff and the services of a scandal-hit social housing firm are set to transfer to the four councils that own it across Kent on September 30.

East Kent Housing manages more than 17,000 properties on behalf of councils in Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone and Hythe, and Thanet.

The decision to break it up was made by councillors at all four councils at the start of the year following a consultation with tenants.

It was prompted by a series of health and safety failings discovered at some of the properties EKH was managing for the councils.

Council chief executives admitted they "had no choice" but to axe the board after thousands of outdated safety assessments were uncovered last year.

Damning leaked documents previously revealed how EKH had left hundreds of homes with overdue gas safety inspections, 4,800 fire risks, almost 2,000 water hygiene risks and hundreds of serious electrical dangers.

Since the decision to break it up was made, work has reportedly been undertaken to address those failings and regular updates have been provided to the Regulator for Social Housing.

The chief executives at the four councils - Colin Carmichael, Nadeem Aziz, Susan Priest and Madeline Homer - released a joint statement on the move.

They said they had worked to ensure the transfer of staff and services back to the councils will happen as "quickly as humanly possible".

"Council officers and senior managers at EKH have been working hard in the background to put all of the arrangements in place and we are now in a position to proceed at pace," they said.

"A determination to retain EKH staff, minimise redundancies and work closely with all staff has always been at the heart of the process.

"There will be more jobs available across the four councils than people currently employed by EKH."

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