Decision

Cornwall Council (00HE) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 September 2026

Published 30 September 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	September 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Cornwall Council following an inspection completed in September 2026.

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

Summary of the decision

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

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Cornwall Council to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the 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 the Council Homes Board, as well as a board meeting of Cornwall Council’s arms-length management organisation, Cornwall Housing. We observed the Resident Monitoring and Governance panel and spoke with tenants. We also held meetings with Cornwall Council including the leader of the council, and the portfolio for holder for housing, the chairs of the Cornwall Housing Board, the Audit, Finance and Risk, and the People and Culture Committees. We interviewed senior staff and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Cornwall Council. 

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by Cornwall Council in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants. Landlords must also ensure that tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. Cornwall Council has completed a physical survey of all its homes over the past five years, although it is currently revisiting some homes where it only has partial information from the survey. This condition survey includes an assessment of hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. At the time of inspection, Cornwall Council reported 89% of its homes met the Decent Homes Standard. Cornwall Council provided evidence of plans in place to address non-decency, damp and mould, and to improve energy performance ratings across its homes through on-going investment.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to provide an effective, efficient, and timely repairs service for the homes and communal areas for which they are responsible. Cornwall Council demonstrated that it is improving tenants’ experience of its repairs service following a sustained period of underperformance. Cornwall Council implemented an interim repairs policy during 2024 to manage delivery capacity. The service has since been restructured, and we gained assurance that performance levels are now improving. However, tenant satisfaction and complaints around timeliness still need to improve. Cornwall Council is aware of these weaknesses and is working with tenants and its contractors to improve outcomes. We will seek assurance through our ongoing engagement that this performance improvement becomes embedded.

Cornwall Council demonstrated that it is taking all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of tenants in its homes and associated communal areas with effective arrangements in place to ensure it meets legal health and safety requirements.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with the police and other relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour. Cornwall Council offers a range of ways to report anti-social behaviour and manages the cases that it receives effectively. Cornwall Council works with partners at both a strategic and operational level to manage anti-social behaviour and hate incidents and we saw evidence that appropriate outcomes are being delivered for tenants. However, we found limited evidence of performance reporting on anti-social behaviour being provided to tenants or internally within the council. Cornwall Council has undertaken an internal review of its service provision and is making changes to strengthen its approach. We will continue to engage with Cornwall Council to ensure that this weakness is addressed.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, our inspection identified a weakness in the delivery of the outcomes relating to tenure and mutual exchange. We saw evidence that Cornwall 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 homes. However, we found that Cornwall Council produces limited performance information on its tenancy, mutual exchange, and sustainment activities. Cornwall Council has begun a review of its approach to performance reporting, and we will continue to engage with the council as it develops its assurance framework in relation to the Tenancy Standard.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out that landlords must treat tenants and prospective tenants with fairness and respect and take action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. Through our inspection we gained assurance that Cornwall Council treats its tenants with fairness and respect. We observed a respectful and positive culture displayed towards engaged tenants through our engagement. We gained assurance that Cornwall Council tailors its services to meet individual needs, but that it has gaps in the information it holds on its tenants’ diverse needs. Cornwall Council is committed to enhancing its overall tenant information through its ‘Knowing Our Residents’ project to address this weakness and we will continue to monitor Cornwall Council’s progress in doing this.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible information so that tenants can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord and hold their landlord to account. It also requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account when making decisions about the delivery of landlord services. Cornwall Council offers a range of informal and formal opportunities for tenants to influence its housing services. It supports tenants to become involved in improving services through scrutiny and other opportunities and listens to tenant feedback through formal and informal mechanisms when making decisions. Cornwall Council provides feedback to tenants about the difference that their involvement has made. The website is clear and easy to use, tenants can access services in a variety of ways, updates are provided through a regular customer magazine, and a comprehensive range of policies are available. Cornwall Council has recently expanded its published performance information and is working with tenants to refine the presentation of this information to ensure it is transparent and accessible.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also sets out that landlords must ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. Cornwall Council has an appropriate policy and process in place for dealing with complaints. It has focused on improving the quality and timeliness of customer contact and understanding the causes of dissatisfaction. However, we consider that performance, satisfaction, and learning from complaints are weaknesses that Cornwall Council needs to improve. This will be an area of focus through our ongoing engagement.

Cornwall Council has engaged constructively with us throughout the inspection process; it has demonstrated that it understands the issues it needs to address and is already working to rectify the identified weaknesses. We will continue to engage with Cornwall Council as it works to address the issues set out in this judgement.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Cornwall Council provides around 10,400 social homes. The management and maintenance of Cornwall Council’s homes is provided by its arms-length management organisation, Cornwall Housing.

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. 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 Regulating the standards.

Further information

• Regulating the standards
• Regulatory standards for landlords

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard