A council leader has admitted it had "fallen short", after the authority was found to have breached its requirements to keep its homes safe.

In a notice served by the government’s Regulator of Social Housing, Norwich City Council is said to have “failed to meet statutory health and safety requirements in relation to fire, electrical, asbestos and water safety”.

It notes however that “the breach of the standard is being remedied” by the council, which had referred itself to the regulator.

No statutory action will therefore be taken against the council by the regulator.

A backlog of overdue safety inspections at hundreds of homes across the city was discovered after the council's community services director ordered an internal review.

Alan Waters, the council’s Labour leader, said: “We take full responsibility for not meeting the required standards as set out by the regulator.

"In plain terms, we have fallen short of what our tenants and leaseholders should be able to expect from us regarding safety checks across all our council homes.

“Our commitment to resolving this matter is unwavering. The urgent work programme we already have in place to bring all our compliance checks up to date is a priority for us and is under way."

Speaking before the notice was served but after news of the missed safety checks had broken, John Neville-Jones, chairman of the Norwich Leaseholders’ Association, said he felt “a certain amount of dismay that this has happened. I’d like to say that it’s a shock and a surprise but I don’t think it is really.

“We do feel that we’re constantly fighting a battle for reasonable treatment from the homeowners team at Norwich City Council.”

He added there “doesn’t seem to be adequate organisation and record-keeping” and that leaseholders were unsure of what was required of them going forwards.

A council spokesperson said: “We wanted to be open with all our tenants and leaseholders about the issues we’d uncovered and to explain the steps we’re taking to resolve them which is why we wrote letters to all 17,000 residents in council homes setting this out.

“In our letters, we assured all tenants and leaseholders that they don’t need to do anything and that we will be in contact with them if their home requires any checks or we need further discussions with them about that work.”