Decision

Dover District Council (29UE) - Regulatory Judgement: 8 July 2026

Published 8 July 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	July 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Dover District Council (Dover DC) following an inspection completed in July 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, our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in Dover DC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and Neighbourhood and Community Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Dover DC.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Dover DC 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 a meeting of the Dover District Tenants Consultative Group, spoke with engaged tenants, held meetings with officers, the Leader of the council and the Cabinet Member for Housing, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Dover DC.

Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information supplied by Dover DC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C2 – July 2026

Dover DC meets the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard. It has an accurate and up to date understanding of the condition of most of its homes, including assessments against the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. Dover DC is targeting activity to increase access where surveys are outstanding. Dover DC reports that 96.5% of its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard, reflecting planned investment in its homes and actions to remediate non-decency.

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas and ensure that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales. We gained assurance that Dover DC is taking reasonable and proactive steps to comply with legal health and safety requirements and has appropriate systems in place to ensure the safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas.

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. During the inspection we saw evidence that Dover DC is providing a repairs and maintenance service that meets regulatory requirements. Dover DC reported that 97% of routine repairs and 100% of emergency repairs are attended to within the required timescales.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with appropriate local authority departments, the police and other relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. We gained assurance that Dover DC works proactively with relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate crime in its neighbourhoods, including using a range of tools and responses. There are a number of ways for tenants to report anti-social behaviour and hate crime, and policies are in place setting out Dover DC’s approach to managing incidents. However, the inspection identified weaknesses in how anti-social behaviour and hate incidents are recorded and monitored and how Dover DC uses data to support its work in preventing and tackling cases. We will continue to engage with Dover DC as it makes the necessary improvements.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Dover DC 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. It has recently produced a revised tenancy strategy and tenancy agreement.

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. Throughout the inspection, Dover DC demonstrated a respectful and positive culture towards tenants, and its engaged tenants told us they felt listened to and valued.

Dover DC has evidenced some understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants, but further improvement is required to ensure it is delivering fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. Dover DC needs to strengthen the information it holds, improve the use of tenants’ information in informing strategic decision making, and ensure that communication is appropriate and clear. Dover DC acknowledges that this is an area of weakness and has plans to increase the pace of this work. We will continue to engage with Dover DC as it makes these improvements.

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. Dover DC will soon revise its tenant engagement strategy. While the inspection identified opportunities for tenants to become more involved in influencing and scrutinising services, Dover DC recognises that improvement is required to further develop and embed these opportunities. Dover DC provides some performance information to enable effective oversight and scrutiny of landlord performance, but this is limited. Dover DC is in the process of developing its approach to how it communicates with tenants. These are areas of weakness that Dover DC will need to address. Through our ongoing engagement with Dover DC, we will seek assurance that change has been embedded and that improved outcomes are being delivered for tenants.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also sets out that landlords must ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. Dover DC has a policy and process in place for dealing with complaints, although this was being revised at the time of the inspection. Overall, we found weaknesses in Dover DC’s recording, monitoring and learning from complaints and improvement is needed. This will be an area of focus through our ongoing engagement.

Dover DC has engaged constructively with us throughout the inspection process. It has demonstrated that it understands the issues it needs to address and is already taking action towards rectifying the weaknesses identified. We will continue to engage with Dover DC as it works to address the issues set out in this judgement.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Dover DC owns and manages around 4,800 social homes.

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