East Midlands council handed C3 rating due to thousands of overdue fire remedial actions

Vanessa Smith, councillor and portfolio holder for housing, said: “We welcome the regulator’s report and the feedback provided.

“When new legislation was introduced... as part of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, the council established a Housing Improvement Board to identify and deliver improvements to ensure we are able to meet the new regulations.

“Following the inspection, the regulator’s findings will now enable us to build upon this work. [Its] report highlighted our constructive engagement and assurance that there is a commitment to improving outcomes for our residents.

“Our focus remains on delivering safe, high-quality homes for our residents, and we are committed to learning from the inspection and demonstrating progress. We will continue to work closely with the regulator as we continue to implement our improvement plans over the coming months.”

The RSH said that Broxtowe has been engaging constructively and has demonstrated an understanding of the issues and a willingness to resolve them.

Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at RSH, said: “Our programme of inspections, which hits the halfway point of its four-year cycle in April, is continuing to identify gaps in landlords’ information on homes and tenants.

“Landlords can improve services for tenants by taking a proactive approach to tackling these gaps. Without accurate, up-to-date information, it is impossible to make the right decisions or demonstrate that homes are safe, warm and decent.”

Manchester City Council received a C2 grading following an inspection, meaning that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and that improvement is needed.

The large city council is now implementing plans to address the weaknesses identified, which include low tenant satisfaction with repairs and anti-social behaviour.

Though it has achieved a good understanding of the condition of its homes and is dealing effectively with health and safety issues, there are some gaps in the information it holds for tenants.

In addition, the RSH also published annual stability check outcomes for nine landlords. Following responsive engagement, Livin was regraded from V2 to V1, while Vico was regraded from V1 to V2. Together Housing was upgraded from C2 to C1.

Fairhive Homes, Fairbridge Community Housing, Nottingham Community Housing, Poplar HARCA, Together Housing Group, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Walsall Housing Group all retained their previous governance and viability gradings of G1 and V1.

It is the latest round of gradings by the RSH since December, when a council in Hampshire became the fifth local authority to be given a C4 rating after the English regulator found “very serious” failings, including fire safety remedial work overdue since 2012.

The regulator also issued Gosport Borough Council with the lowest consumer grading due to “unacceptable” failings in fire and electrical safety, as well as in repairs and knowledge of its stock.