Social housing regulator finds serious issues with five landlords

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has found serious issues impacting tenant safety and living conditions by five social housing landlords.

The report identified problems in Bristol City Council, Guildford Borough Council, Octavia Housing and Sheffield City Council.

All four failed to meet the RSH’s new consumer standards, introduced in April.

These standards aim to ensure social housing landlords deliver long-term improvements for tenants.

Separately, Cambridge City Council was found to have overcharged nearly half its tenants due to rent-setting errors.

‘Provide safe and decent homes for tenants’

Kate Dodsworth, the RSH’s chief of regulatory engagement, said: “Landlords must provide safe and decent homes for tenants, have an effective complaints process, and put things right when there are problems.

“The judgements we published show that each of these landlords have issues which they need to address promptly.”

She adds: “All landlords need to make sure they deliver the outcomes in our standards and inform us when there are material issues.

“Our new approach to regulation gives us new tools to scrutinise landlords’ performance and, where there are issues, drive them to deliver long-term improvements for the benefit of tenants.”

The issues identified

The breakdown of the issues identified with the five social landlords include:

• Bristol City Council: Thousands of overdue repairs, outstanding fire safety actions, lack of up-to-date safety data and potential carbon monoxide safety breaches.
• Guildford Borough Council: Outdated electrical reports, incomplete fire safety actions and failure to collect tenant satisfaction data.
• Octavia Housing: Overdue fire safety remedial actions, incomplete safety inspection records and inability to demonstrate compliance with other health and safety requirements.
• Sheffield City Council: Extensive backlog of repairs, high number of outstanding disrepair cases and inaccurate records on property condition.
• Cambridge City Council: Overcharged 3,600 tenants an estimated total of £3.2 million due to rent-setting mistakes.

Taking steps to address the issues

The RSH says the landlords are taking steps to address the issues with support during the improvement process.

Bristol City Council, Guildford Borough Council, Octavia Housing and Sheffield City Council received a C3 grading from the RSH, indicating serious failings requiring significant improvement.

This is the first time the RSH has issued consumer gradings for social landlords under its revised regulatory approach.

RSH does not assign grades related to rent standards.

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