RSH warns council to make fundamental changes for tenants
The Regulator of Social Housing published regulatory judgements for 15 landlords today, including a C4 for Haringey London Borough Council (LBC)
Haringey London Borough Council must make fundamental changes to deliver improved outcomes for its tenants, the Regulator of Social Housing has warned.
The north London local authority was given a C4 consumer grade today after RSH’s inspection found very serious failings.
Although Haringey LBC had indicated a willingness to address issues and taken some action, RSH has not yet seen sufficient evidence that it understands the potential risk to tenants and is able to put matters right.
Issues included:
- A substantial backlog of overdue repairs including damp and mould cases, poor tenant satisfaction, and weaknesses in performance, oversight and assurance.
- Only around half of non-emergency repairs reported were completed on time in 2025/26.
- Despite improvement activity over several years, outcomes remain poor and tenants continue to experience delays, missed appointments and communication failures.
- Almost 4,000 remedial fire safety actions are overdue – including more than 1,400 actions categorised as high risk.
- Not providing timely responses or demonstrating learning from complaints.
- A failure to inform the RSH about significant issues which had emerged.
RSH Deputy Chief Executive Kate Dodsworth said: “A C4 judgement sends a clear signal that tenants have been let down and that urgent and sustained improvement is needed.
“We will maintain intensive engagement and close oversight, set clear expectations for improvement and, if necessary, use our powers to make sure change happens.
“We expect landlords in this position to take urgent action to address and fix the issues identified and improve outcomes for tenants.”
Two other local authorities received a C3 consumer grade in today’s regulatory judgements.
RSH found serious failings in how Tamworth Borough Council in Staffordshire is meeting the outcomes of the regulatory standards. It has not shown that all actions arising from health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales.
There were issues around its reporting of hazards including a lack of detail on the number of overdue hazards and the timeliness of remedial actions, and the reporting and oversight of anti-social behaviour. RSH saw limited evidence of meaningful opportunities for tenants to scrutinise their landlord’s performance and influence how its services are delivered.
Tamworth has engaged constructively with RSH during the inspection. It is improving its understanding of tenants’ homes and strengthening its repairs process, and taking action to address the other issues RSH found in the inspection.
RSH also found serious failings in how Woking Borough Council in Surrey is meeting the outcomes of the regulatory standards. RSH identified some weaknesses in the council’s completion of overdue fire, water and asbestos remedial actions. The council needs to improve its disrepair reporting and improve communication with tenants on this issue.
RSH also found serious failings in Woking’s delivery of the outcomes of the Tenancy Standard and the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, notably around the management of anti-social behaviour and hate incidents, and tenancy oversight.
Woking is largely meeting its health and safety obligations and targets for repairs. It has engaged constructively with us throughout the inspection process and is taking action to address these weaknesses.
Two landlords – Irwell Valley Housing Association in Greater Manchester and The Pioneer Housing and Community Group Limited based in Birmingham – received a C1 today for their first grading following inspection.
And three landlords – Karbon Homes Limited in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, South Holland District Council in Lincolnshire and Tuntum Housing Association Limited in Nottingham – received consumer upgrades to C1.
Home Group Limited based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne received a C2 for its first consumer grading and a G2 downgrade. RSH said it needs to improve some aspects of its board reporting to enable effective oversight of consumer and compliance risk areas. It also needs to strengthen board oversight of assurance findings and reviews to enable timely delivery of improvements.
The Housing Plus Group and Trent and Dove Housing Limited, both based in Staffordshire, received a C2 for their first consumer gradings. Both have G1/V2 grades that were assessed and unchanged.
ReSi Homes Group received its first gradings of C2, G2 and V1* following inspection. The for-profit landlord owns around 1,400 shared ownership homes, the majority of which are in the south west, south east and London, managed by third party property managers.
The first of this year’s stability checks were also published today - RSH’s annual review of a landlord’s financial information, business plan and risk profile to assess whether its financial viability gradings remain appropriate.
Among those was G15 landlord Notting Hill Genesis (NHG), which currently has C3, G3 and V2 grades. RSH continues to engage intensively with NHG as it delivers the required improvements and is monitoring their progress closely. RSH is considering alternative resolution options should they be needed and could take regulatory action if required.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The full list of judgements published today is provided in the table below.
| Landlord | Consumer grade | Governance Grade | Viability Grade | Engagement Process |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cottsway Housing Association Limited | Not yet assessed | G1 (based on previous assessment) | V1 (assessed and unchanged) | Stability check |
| Curo Group (Albion) Limited | C1 (based on previous assessment) | G1 (based on previous assessment) | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Stability check |
| Haringey London Borough Council | C4 (first grading) | - | - | Inspection |
| Home Group Limited | C2 (first grading) | G2 downgrade | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Inspection |
| (The) Housing Plus Group Limited | C2 (first grading) | G1 (assessed and unchanged) | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Inspection |
| Irwell Valley Housing Association Limited | C1 (first grading) | G1 (assessed and unchanged) | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Inspection |
| Karbon Homes Limited | C1 (upgrade) | G1 (based on previous assessment) | V1 (based on previous assessment) | Responsive engagement |
| Notting Hill Genesis | C3 (based on previous assessment) | G3 (based on previous assessment) | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Responsive engagement/ Stability Check |
| Pioneer Housing and Community Group Limited | C1 (first grading) | G1 (assessed and unchanged) | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Inspection |
| ReSi Homes Limited | C2* (first grading) | G2* (First grading) | V1* (first grading) | Inspection |
| South Holland District Council | C1 (upgrade) | - | - | Responsive engagement |
| Tamworth Borough Council | C3 (first grading) | - | - | Inspection |
| Trent & Dove Housing Limited | C2 (first grading) | G1 (assessed and unchanged) | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Inspection |
| Tuntum Housing Association Limited | C1 (upgrade) | G1 (based on previous assessment) | V2 (assessed and unchanged) | Responsive engagement |
| Woking Borough Council | C3 (first grading) | - | - | Inspection |
- On 1 April 2024 RSH introduced revised consumer standards for social housing landlords, designed to drive long-term improvements in the sector. It also began a programme of landlord inspections. The changes are a result of the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 and include stronger powers to hold landlords to account. More information about RSH’s approach is available in its document Reshaping Consumer Regulation.
- RSH does not give grades to small landlords (under 1,000 homes) and only publishes regulatory judgements where it considers there to be serious weaknesses or failings in a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of the standards.
- Grades marked with an asterisk indicate a for-profit registered provider.
- More information about RSH’s responsive engagement, programmed inspections and consumer gradings is also available on its website.
- 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.
- RSH publishes gradings for consumer, governance and viability. Local authorities only receive consumer gradings. More information can be found on our How we approach regulatory judgements and gradings page.
- For media enquiries please contact vicky.moore@rsh.gov.uk or christian.cosby@rsh.gov.uk. For general enquiries, email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk.