The Council is committed to improving housing services for tenants and leaseholders.
The Council referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing in September 2024 after commissioning an independent internal review of how we were performing against national standards that came into force in April 2024.
The Regulator subsequently carried out the first of its planned programme of four-yearly landlord inspections that concluded in May 2025.
The Regulator has given the Council a C3 grade, which means that there are serious failings in how it is currently delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.
The following questions and answers explain what this means for tenants and leaseholders.
The Regulator of Social Housing sets out the regulatory standards that landlords must deliver under the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. It regulates for a viable, efficient and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.
The Social Housing (Regulations) Act 2023, which came into force on 1 April 2024, introduced four new consumer standards, which apply to all registered providers of social housing, including local authorities. These place an emphasis on decent homes, tenant safety, tenant engagement, transparency and a duty on landlords to highlight any areas of non-compliance to the Regulator.
Under the new standards landlords need to:
ensure tenants are safe in their homes
listen to tenants’ complaints and respond promptly to put things right
be accountable to tenants and treat them with fairness and respect
know more about the condition of every home and the needs of the people who live in them
collect and use data effectively across a range of areas, including repairs
Following an expansion of its powers, from 1 April 2024, the Regulator began carrying out regulatory inspections of social landlords. Read more on what these inspections involve.
The Regulator of Social Housing publishes regulatory judgements to show how well a landlord is delivering its services compared to an agreed set of consumer standards. They provide a consumer grading from C1 to C4.
The Regulator of Social Housing can give four consumer grades, which mean:
C1 - Landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.
C2 - There are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.
C3 - There are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.
C4 - There are very serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered.
Following a comprehensive internal review, the Council referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing in September 2024 to seek advice in relation to its performance against the recently adopted consumer standards.
It is not uncommon for local authorities to refer themselves to the Regulator. The decision to self-refer reflected our commitment to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement.
Recognising areas where we need to improve, we submitted a draft housing improvement plan to the Regulator for review. The delivery of the improvement work is being overseen by a Housing Improvement Board that brings together tenants, councillors and officers.
Following the first of its planned programme of four-yearly landlord inspections, the Regulator has given the Council a C3 grade, which means that there are serious failings in how it is currently delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.
The Regulator recognised our commitment to making things right and the work we have already started. In November 2024, we established a Housing Improvement Board that brings tenants, councillors and officers together every month to oversee our improvement plan and scrutinise housing performance data.
Some of the key steps we are taking include the following:
Investing in homes: Through our Housing Asset Management Strategy 2025-2030 (PDF), we are committing £250 million over the next five years - 78% more than in the previous five years - to improve and refurbish council homes. This includes upgrades to roofs, kitchens, bathrooms and windows.
Improving safety: Since September 2024 we are progressing a £10.5m programme to install new alarms in council homes that detect heat, smoke and carbon monoxide.
Supporting tenants better: Our ‘Behind Every Door’ programme has seen us visit 380 tenants so far, listening to their needs and offering practical support where it’s needed.
Better systems: We are introducing a new online housing system to make it easier for tenants to manage their tenancy and access services.
We will be publishing a full improvement plan later in 2025, shaped by tenant feedback and the Regulator’s findings.
The Council is writing to all tenants and leaseholders in May 2025 following the publication of the Regulator’s judgement. Read a copy of the letter (PDF).
We are inviting tenants to attend a series of events in June 2025 to hear more about the improvements we are making to our housing services, ask questions and tell us what matters most to them.
We will be publishing a full improvement plan later in 2025, shaped by tenant feedback and the Regulator’s findings.
If you are a council tenant and there is a problem in your property that is our responsibility to fix, you can request a repair.