Decision

City of York Council (00FF) - Regulatory Judgement: 29 April 2026

Published 29 April 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C2 Our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.	First grading	April 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for City of York Council following an inspection completed in April 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C2. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade for this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection, we have concluded that there are some weaknesses in City of York Council delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and that improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for City of York Council.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of City of York Council to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of our consumer standards as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. During the inspection, we considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection, we observed meetings of the executive team, the public meeting of the executive member for housing, planning and safer communities, the people scrutiny committee, and the tenant scrutiny panel. We also met with engaged tenants, officers and councillors. In addition, we reviewed a wide range of documents provided by City of York Council.

Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information provided by City of York Council in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings

Consumer – C2 – April 2026

In relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, City of York Council has an accurate and up to date understanding of the condition of its homes, including assessment against the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. City of York Council uses this information to inform its strategic approach to managing investment in its homes. It has a clear programme in place to achieve full survey coverage of the condition of its homes by April 2026 and to maintain this position afterwards through a rolling programme. City of York Council’s reported compliance with the Decent Homes Standard is informed by its housing condition surveys, which indicate that only 2% of homes do not meet the required standard.

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which it is responsible. City of York Council is providing a repairs and maintenance service that meets regulatory requirements, but there are some weaknesses in the outcomes being achieved and the service requires improvement. At the time of the inspection, 79% of all repairs were being completed on time, with 90% of emergency repairs being completed on the same or the next day. While most repairs are completed within eleven days, complex repairs can take considerably longer, contributing to backlogs. City of York Council’s performance has been impacted by significant challenges in staff recruitment and retention, but it is taking action to address this.

City of York Council is dealing with damp and mould within the legally required timescales and has associated performance measures in place to monitor adherence. Many of City of York Council’s homes are built on marshland and rising damp is a significant issue. City of York Council has allocated additional resources to enhance both internal and external capacity to carry out remedial works. Where such works are too disruptive or hazards pose a significant risk to tenants, City of York Council has a track record of relocating tenants in an appropriate timeframe.

City of York Council is meeting its landlord health and safety obligations and outcomes but there are some weaknesses that it needs to address. City of York Council has further work to do to complete its domestic electrical safety programme, and although it currently reports no overdue high-risk fire safety remedial actions, there are a number of medium and low risk actions to deliver. It also has a significant number of overdue water safety remedial actions remaining that it needs to complete. We do, however, have assurance that, pending completion of these actions, City of York Council has appropriate mitigations in place to provide for the safety of its tenants. While City of York Council provides some information to tenants about staying safe in their homes and communal spaces, it recognises that there is scope for improvement.

At present, City of York Council does not carry out testing of its assurance, for example, by carrying out periodic internal audit reviews of compliance. We consider this to be a weakness that City of York Council needs to address. It is carrying out an exercise to check and reconcile the information it holds, and is working to ensure that internal and specialist compliance audits form part of its future assurance approach. City of York Council will need to complete these reviews and action any recommendations that arise to address the identified weaknesses.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, City of York Council works in partnership with other organisations, including the police, to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides social housing. City of York Council has an up to date anti-social behaviour policy. It ensures that staff are appropriately trained and that the outcomes being achieved are shared with tenants. It emphasises prevention, providing extra support to people being resettled into tenancies. However, City of York Council does not always meet its response times. Oversight arrangements are in place to monitor anti-social behaviour cases, but it needs to strengthen the systems that support this, including the range of measures being used and reported.

In 2024/25 tenant satisfaction with City of York Council’s maintenance of communal areas and shared spaces was comparatively low. It has since taken action that has included the reintroduction of estate walkabouts, the establishment of a new neighbourhood caretaker team, and additional funding for neighbourhood improvements. This represents positive evidence of City of York Council using tenant insight to target improved outcomes, and the latest tenant satisfaction results show marked improvement.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that City of York Council offers tenancies or terms of occupation that are compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock. City of York Council undertakes a range of activities to help support tenants to sustain their tenancies. It is producing a new Tenancy Sustainment Strategy that will bring greater coherence to these activities. As part of this work, City of York Council will strengthen its ability to demonstrate the outcomes being delivered by its tenancy sustainment work.

City of York Council is meeting the requirements of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard but there are weaknesses that it needs to address. City of York Council has a corporate commitment to fairness and its housing charter pledges to treat tenants with fairness, courtesy and respect. Throughout our inspection we saw a respectful, fair and positive culture evidenced towards tenants by both officers and councillors. However, in 2024/25, the proportion of tenants who agreed that City of York Council treated them fairly and with respect was lower than sector averages. City of York Council has since undertaken significant work to understand this result and carried out staff training focused on communication and respect. The evidence available to us through the inspection suggests that the action taken has led to improvements for tenants.

City of York Council has some understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants and comprehensive equality impact assessments underpin the implementation of all new policies. In 2024, City of York Council implemented a Vulnerability and Reasonable Adjustments Protocol to increase the information it holds on vulnerability and to emphasise the importance of collecting and using such information. However, the information City of York Council holds is not used consistently to design and shape service delivery, nor to assess whether those services deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants, and we consider this to be a weakness that City of York Council needs to address. City of York Council has plans in place to increase the quality of its tenant profile information and to undertake a programme of tenancy wellbeing visits.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also requires landlords to provide accessible information so tenants can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord and hold their landlord to account. City of York Council offers tenants a wide range of meaningful engagement opportunities, enabling them to influence and scrutinise landlord strategies, policies and services. Formal tenant engagement opportunities include a Tenant Scrutiny Panel, task and finish groups, a Performance Panel, and Tenant Voice (a virtual reference group). City of York Council is receptive to feedback from tenants and makes changes as a result, however, it is not always clear how their input has been considered and there is scope to formalise the interface between tenant engagement and City of York Council’s wider governance mechanisms.

There are some weaknesses in the extent to which City of York Council provides tenants with an accessible range of written information about landlord services. Although detailed information is available through the York Open Data platform, it is not very easy to use. City of York Council’s website provides useful content, and tenants are able to make complaints, and report anti-social behaviour and repairs online. City of York Council also produces a regular tenant newsletter. City of York Council is meeting our expectations regarding the collection and publication of Tenant Satisfaction Measures. As outlined above, it has acted on the survey results to develop and enhance services.

Complaints performance is an area of weakness for City of York Council. In 2024/25, only 55% of Stage 1 and 40% of Stage 2 complaints were responded to within set timescales. City of York Council recognises the need for improvement, and it is changing its internal handling arrangements as well as strengthening its management information and oversight of complaints.

City of York Council is working constructively with us and has demonstrated self-awareness throughout the inspection. There is positive evidence of progress being made to address the areas of weakness. We will continue to work with City of York Council to seek assurance that it is addressing these issues.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

City of York Council owns around 7,430 homes, of which 7,300 are social housing for low-cost rent and 130 are shared ownership.

Our role and regulatory approach

We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.

We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations).

We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment.

We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page. 

We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. In-Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our new inspections programme from 1 April 2024. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes. 

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. 

For more information about our approach to regulation, please see How we Regulate.

Further information

• Regulating the standards
• Regulatory standards for landlords