Lessons from regulatory inspections of local authorities

It has now been just over a year since the implementation of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 introduced a system of proactive regulation against the new consumer standards. With it came inspections of local authorities by the Regulator of Social Housing for the first time. 

At the time of writing, 35 local authorities have been inspected and received their first grading. The gradings break down as follows: 

• 3 local authorities have received the top C1 grade, meaning that the Regulator of Social Housing has judged that the local authority is delivering the outcomes required in the consumer standards; 
• 14 local authorities have been awarded a C2 grade, indicating that there are ‘some weaknesses’ in delivering the outcomes required in the consumer standards and ‘some improvement’ is needed; 
• 22 have received a C3 grade, meaning that there are ‘serious failings’ in delivering the outcomes required in the consumer standards and ‘significant improvement’ is needed; and 
• 2 have received a C4 grade, meaning there are ‘very serious failings’ in delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and ‘fundamental changes’ must be made. 

Therefore, there is work to be done by local authorities in improving their compliance with the consumer standards and improving the services that they offer residents.

Local authority RPs must ensure that they comply with all aspects of consumer standards. However, in the judgments we have seen to date, there are common themes, which include: 

• A lack of evidence about the condition of properties, specifically a lack of stock condition survey data for all stock; 
• gaps in relation to health and safety compliance, with numbers of outstanding gas or fire safety checks and lack of smoke or carbon monoxide alarms being particularly common; 
• significant backlogs of repairs, with both high numbers of outstanding repairs and long delays in having those repairs carried out. Similarly, backlogs for dealing with urgent repairs; 
• a number of homes not meeting Decent Homes Standard; 
• lack of proper processes in place to assess and mitigate the risk to tenants of living in homes where issues are outstanding; 
• failures to establish proper tenant engagement structures where tenants have meaningful opportunities to scrutinise and influence decisions; and 
• issues with the collection of tenant satisfaction measures survey data. 

Related to all of this is another common theme of a lack of proper assurance processes that extend from the operation right up to cabinet level to ensure that the cabinet is properly informed on compliance issues. Cabinet time is, of course, limited, and local authorities have many different functions to deal with that all demand time. However, the Regulator of Social Housing is clear that there must be proper oversight of the housing function and compliance with the consumer standards from the cabinet. 

Local authorities would be wise to review their internal operations, particularly in relation to the issues identified above, to address any compliance issues with the consumer standards. This will help to ensure that your local authority is best prepared for its own inspection and, more importantly, will ensure that your residents are receiving the service they should and are living in a safe and decent home.

Darren Hooker is a partner at Capsticks.