Regulator of Social Housing judgement

Regulator of Social Housing Regulatory Judgement - response from Nottingham City Council Housing Services.

Nottingham City Council’s 1000-strong Housing Services team was visited by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) last October. The visit was part of the Regulator’s inspection regime, introduced in April 2024 to monitor performance against the Consumer Standards. These standards apply to virtually all social housing providers, including local authorities.

This was the first inspection for Housing Services since it was brought back under direct council management in April 2023 with a commitment to improve services for tenants and leaseholders. Prior to that, Housing was delivered via an Arm’s Length Management Organisation arrangement.

Following the inspection, the Regulator has graded Nottingham City Council’s Housing Services at C3 and has concluded that “…there are serious failings in Nottingham City Council delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, and significant improvement is needed.”

Cllr Jay Hayes, Executive Member for Housing and Planning at Nottingham City Council, says, “We have been aware of the need to significantly improve our housing services since we brought the ALMO back in house, so this judgement does not come as a surprise. We proactively engaged with the Regulator in January 2024 and shared our improvement plans then.

“Resident safety and the delivery of our housing services in line with tenant aspirations is a key priority, and we’re committed to making sure that the money we’re investing in addressing some of the failings in the report is spent where it will have the most impact.  

“We take the issues in the Regulator’s report extremely seriously, and our improvement plans, which have been underway since we took over direct housing management, include:  

• Investing £20 million to improve frontline services.
• Delivering a citywide Stock Condition Survey that is inspecting all 25,000 council-owned homes over the next 18 months.
• Employing more skilled tradespeople and working with major national contractors to tackle outstanding repairs and reduce waiting times for new repairs requests.
• Employing a dedicated team to address issues with damp and mould and clear the disrepair backlog.
• Investing in planned maintenance and improvement projects such as the Victoria Centre windows project and High Rise Living.
• Developing a set of service standards so that residents can hold us to account.
• Restructuring services to focus on frontline service delivery and changing in response to the feedback from our tenants.
• Taking action to improve the quality and relevance of the data we hold about our residents and the homes they live in.

“We have also established a new Housing Assurance Board (HAB), made up of tenants whose role it is to scrutinise services, make recommendations to help us to improve, and make sure we keep our promises, and a new Executive Housing Oversight Board (EHOB), made up of tenants and senior councillors whose role it is to scrutinise services and make sure we continue our journey of continuous improvement.

“The RSH has acknowledged that there are already improvements taking place. It also recognises that work to re-engage tenants and groups is still in its early stages but has good foundations.

“We are pleased that the RSH acknowledges our strengths in areas such as our understanding of the diverse needs of our residents, the way we address complaints fairly, effectively, and promptly, and how we provide relevant and accessible information so that residents understand what to expect from their landlord.

“However, we do not take the RSH’s findings lightly. Clearly there is much work to do, and we will not shy away from doing it. We prioritise building safety and compliance, and it’s good to note this had a reasonable level of assurance noted.

“Everyone deserves to live in a safe, secure, affordable and decent home, and we are committed to engaging positively with the Regulator and with our residents to deliver what is needed. Improvement of our housing services is part of the council’s wider Improvement Plan. with a clear commitment to deliver improved and well-run services for all our residents.”