Three councils and a housing association get ‘C3’ rating
Four social landlords have failed to meet the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) new consumer standards.
In the first batch of regulatory judgements since the new proactive regime came into effect in April, RSH gave three councils and a housing association a ‘C3’ grading, which means there are serious failings and they need to make significant improvements.
Bristol City Council, Guildford Borough Council, Octavia Housing and Sheffield City Council were all found non-compliant.
RSH said Bristol City Council could not provide evidence that it is meeting carbon monoxide safety requirements for more than 22,000 homes out of the 26,700 it manages overall.
It also reported 1,900 open damp and mould cases, more than 16,000 overdue repairs and 3,000 overdue fire safety actions. In addition, the council does not have up-to-date data about the condition of tenants’ homes.
Bristol City Council referred itself to RSH after it suspected it wasn’t complying with the new Quality and Safety Standard.
Tony Dyer, leader of Bristol City Council, apologised to residents.
He said: “Both our own internal assessment and that of the Regulator sets out clearly where the gaps in our arrangements exist and provide a blueprint for improvement. We accept the findings of the regulator’s review and have committed to fix the issues we face in the shortest possible time.”
Dyer added that the council also acknowledges “the national challenge councils face in catching up with changing regulation at a time when funding is scarce”.
Guildford Borough Council was found to have 1,700 homes without an up-to-date electrical condition report out of 5,200 homes in total. RSH said the landlord could not provide evidence that it has completed 1,300 fire safety actions and that it had not collected Tenant Satisfaction Measures from tenants as required.
Julia McShane, leader of Guildford Borough Council, said: “We can evidence progress across all areas of compliance and building safety which includes a real time compliance dashboard, recruitment of expert officers and procurement of building safety contracts.
“We’ve reviewed all electrical information data to confirm an accurate position of where we are and procured two short term contractors to complete the certification work by July 2025. “
Octavia Housing, which is also in breach of the RSH governance and financial viability standard, was found to have 1,200 overdue fire safety remedial actions across its 5,000 homes. RSH said the landlord was unable to provide evidence that it is meeting other health and safety requirements, and it does not hold complete and accurate records for safety inspections.
RSH decided to carry out further investigations after a serious fire at Octavia’s Petworth Court development in Wembley in January.
Kevin Bolt, interim chief executive, said: “The safety and wellbeing of our residents are our highest priority. Octavia recognises that it should have done more to meet the requirements of the Safety and Quality Standard and accepts the C3 grading.”
“With the support of our proposed merger partner, Abri, Octavia has in recent months allocated substantial extra resources to improving our performance on health and safety and are confident of delivering the changes that the Regulator requires.”
RSH said Sheffield City Council had 10,000 outstanding repairs across its 38,500 homes and between January and April more than 90% of its disrepair cases were outstanding for ‘extended periods’. RSH also found evidence that the council, which self-referred, does not have an accurate record of the condition of tenants’ homes.
Douglas Johnson, chair of Sheffield City Council’s housing committee, said: “We acknowledge that standards in our Housing Service in relation to gas safety and the number of outstanding repairs to be carried out on our properties have not been sufficient.
“For some time, we have been working with the Regulator of Social Housing to correct these issues. We have implemented new policies and introduced new ways of working that have seen a rise in those standards of service for our tenants. Our housing is an important public service that we want to be proud of.”
RSH has since 1 April been tasked with taking a new proactive approach to consumer regulation, assessing landlords against four new consumer standards and holding them to account by carrying out regular inspections and scrutinising data on tenant satisfaction and repairs.
>> See also: Evolution or revolution? What new consumer standards mean for RPs
RSH is carrying out planned inspections of all social landlords managing more than 1,000 homes over a four-year cycle. RSH expects to publish the outcomes of the first inspections later in the summer.
The new Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an “accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs their provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants.” It also “requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas, and that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales.”
In addition to the consumer standard breaches, Cambridge City Council was found to have breached the pre-existing rent standard by overcharging around 3,600 tenants.
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