Canterbury City Council fails to meet RSH’s consumer standards
Canterbury City Council has failed to meet the outcomes in the consumer standards and has been given a C3 grading from RSH, as part of a number of regulatory judgements published today.
An inspection of Canterbury City Council found:
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Serious failings in its completion of health and safety remedial works.
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Gaps in the data it holds on its homes, with only 27.5% of homes surveyed so far.
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No current adaptations policy to meet tenants’ needs, with a number of adaptations works incomplete.
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Weaknesses in the reporting and monitoring of anti-social behaviour.
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Delays in responding to tenants’ complaints and in the oversight of complaints made directly to contractors by tenants.
RSH also published regulatory judgements for Cambridge City Council and Trident Housing Association, after both landlords addressed previous issues relating to the rent standard.
Cambridge CC has put arrangements in place to refund impacted tenants, following a judgement from July 2024. It has strengthened its approach to rent setting, acting on third party advice as well as undertaking internal audits to ensure that its data is accurate.
Following a judgement from December 2024, Trident has also begun to refund affected tenants and has strengthened its internal controls and assurance to its board to prevent recurrence.
Trident was also upgraded to G1, meaning the landlord meets our governance requirements. Its viability grading remained unchanged at V2.
Cambridge and Trident, alongside Lewes and Eastbourne councils, all received C2 gradings following planned inspections. This means there are some weaknesses in their delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.
Angela Holden, Director of Regulatory Engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing at RSH, said:
“We will continue to engage with Canterbury City Council as it works to address these issues, including taking steps to mitigate risks to tenants as it delivers its improvement plan.
“As our we approach the halfway mark of our new inspection programme, we will continue to hold landlords to account, ensuring they are meeting the outcomes of our standards and providing safe, decent homes for tenants.”
Notes to Editors
1 - Links to each of the judgements are available in the table below.
| Landlord | Consumer | Governance | Viability | Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canterbury City Council | C3 | - | - | Inspection |
| Trident Housing Association Limited | C2 | G1 (upgrade) | V2 | Inspection |
| Cambridge City Council | C2 | - | - | Inspection |
| Eastbourne Borough Council | C2 | - | - | Inspection |
| Lewes District Council | C2 | - | - | Inspection |
2 - RSH regulates housing associations and other private registered providers against its full set of standards. Councils are regulated against the consumer and rent standards only.
3 - More information about RSH’s responsive engagement, programmed inspections and consumer gradings is also available on its website.
4 - RSH promotes a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver more and better social homes. It does this by setting standards and carrying out robust regulation focusing on driving improvement in social landlords, including local authorities, and ensuring that housing associations are well-governed, financially viable and offer value for money. It takes appropriate action if the outcomes of the standards are not being delivered.
5 - For general enquiries, email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk. For media enquiries please see our media enquiries page.