The discrepancy in performance between councils and registered providers in the ‘C' gradings awarded by the Regulator of Social Housing following inspections has been striking.
Only one council so far has achieved C1. Nearly two-thirds have scored C3 or C4, indicating serious failings, with major changes and improvement required.
The top C1 grading is not, it should be said, a confirmation of the highest performance. It is good, but more in the nature of an acceptable minimum rather than exceptional.
Should we be surprised?
Well, no. Readers of The MJ need no reminding what has happened to local authority finances over recent times. And the comprehensive nature of council services means that, unlike housing associations that focus on one principal service, local authorities have a lot of areas where things can go wrong and where demand can hugely exceed capacity. Plus of course many councils did not have access to Decent Homes funding to improve their stock. Hence in many cases, the quality of local authority housing has declined and there has also been a lack of resource to deliver the highest quality standards of management. This was exacerbated by the 2016-20 rent reductions with their effects on HRA business plans.
It's also true that many local authorities, being new to housing regulation, may have been less well prepared than registered providers for engaging with the regime.
Nonetheless, much can be done to address the expectation of the new consumer standards. Understanding the drivers of higher gradings and of non-compliant gradings is central to this. The most common areas for inadequate performance by local authorities are health and safety, data quality and poor knowledge of stock condition, repairs and maintenance, and tenant engagement.
There is plenty of learning to be obtained from the experiences of local authorities inspected so far. Crucially councils have to understand where they have strengths, and what are their areas for improvement. Having an effective and comprehensive assurance framework in place is critical. And if there are areas of serious non-compliance with the standards, they need a plan to tackle this, and should self-refer to the regulator instead of waiting for inspection.
Campbell Tickell has been working with many of the social landlords inspected under the new regime. To discuss how we can help, contact me at: greg.campbell@campbelltickell.com
