East Devon District Council (18UB) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 July 2025
Published 30 July 2025
Applies to England
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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 2025 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for East Devon District Council (East Devon DC) following an inspection completed in July 2025.
The regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading 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 East Devon DC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, and improvement is needed across elements of all four of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for East Devon DC.
How we reached our judgement
We carried out an inspection of East Devon DC to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. 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 Housing Review Board and a meeting of the Tenant Scrutiny Panel. We met with involved tenants, officers, the leader of the council, the portfolio holder for Sustainable Homes and Communities, and the chair of the Housing Review Board. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by East Devon DC.
Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by East Devon DC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.
Summary of findings
Consumer – C2 – July 2025
The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes at an individual property level based on a physical assessment of all homes. In addition, landlords must ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). East Devon DC has demonstrated it has a good understanding of its homes, having completed a stock condition survey covering 90% of its homes within the last three years. It reported that around 7% of its homes did not meet the DHS based on the information that it has, and that it is now refreshing its investment planning to bring homes up to DHS using this stock condition survey data. East Devon DC is developing a rolling programme for future stock condition surveys to ensure all homes will be physically surveyed, starting with homes where it does not have a current survey.
The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. We have overall assurance East Devon DC is meeting its obligations in relation to landlord health and safety compliance. We found weaknesses, however, in its oversight and reporting around health and safety compliance, including in relation to remedial actions identified through the relevant health and safety checks. East Devon DC is working to improve the consistency and accuracy of its reporting to address these concerns. East Devon has some areas with elevated levels of radon, and East Devon DC has worked with the UK Health Security Agency to develop a risk profile for its homes which was completed at the end of 2024. It is now in the process of determining next steps for identifying any work required as a result. We intend to engage with East Devon DC to ensure that improving oversight of health and safety compliance remains an area of focus.
The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which they are responsible. East Devon DC is generally delivering repairs in a timely way for its tenants, though we found some weaknesses in how it is reporting on performance. East Devon DC is aware of this weakness and is working to resolve it, alongside improving overall service performance. We will continue to engage with East Devon DC in relation to its repairs service and will seek assurance that changes will be embedded to improve outcomes for tenants.
The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with relevant organisations to promote positive outcomes for tenants. We have assurance that East Devon DC is meeting the outcomes of the Neighbourhood and Community Standard. The council adopt a victim-centred approach to the management of anti-social behaviour (ASB) cases, and we found that the individual needs of tenants are considered throughout the process. Tenant satisfaction with the ASB service has improved recently, and East Devon DC has learnt from a Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) severe maladministration finding in 2023. Partnership working is effective. We found weaknesses in performance oversight and that the council’s ASB policy is out of date, although a refreshed policy is in the process of being drafted and consulted on.
In relation to the Tenancy Standard, East Devon DC’s housing allocations policy 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. However, East Devon DC needs to do more to ensure that it has effective monitoring and oversight in place to achieve the outcomes of this standard. It also needs to review its Tenancy Strategy and Policy which are both out of date, although East Devon DC has plans in place to do this.
The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible information so tenants can 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. East Devon DC has a limited understanding of the needs of its tenants, and this restricts its ability to evidence that it is taking action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. It holds some information on the characteristics of around 60% of its tenants and although it uses this to deliver services in a way that meets individual tenant’s needs, it was not able to evidence that diverse needs inform overall decision making and service design. East Devon DC advised it is developing an approach to improve the level of information held about its tenants and this should enhance its ability to monitor consistent outcomes.
We also found weaknesses in how East Devon DC is delivering outcomes in respect of tenant influence and scrutiny. The Housing Review Board (HRB) consists of councillors, tenant representatives and independent community representatives, and provides scrutiny of East Devon DC’s housing service. We saw evidence of landlord performance, policy reviews, and landlord service information being presented to the HRB on a regular basis. However, we observed some inconsistency in the presentation of this information which makes it difficult for HRB members to scrutinise performance. East Devon DC has a range of other opportunities for tenants to get involved and express their views about the services they receive, and it has provided relevant training and support to enable them to do so. It recognises the need to increase the diversity of its engaged tenants as the majority are from its sheltered housing schemes, and it gave examples of actions it intends to take to achieve this.
We have seen evidence that East Devon DC provides a range of service and performance information to tenants. This is mainly online including through its website, an annual report to tenants, HRB reports and a recently launched online Resident Engagement Hub. East Devon DC supports tenants to access online services through digital confidence workshops, however, we lacked assurance that it fully considers how to communicate with tenants using other methods. We will continue to work with East Devon DC as it seeks to improve the way that it communicates with its tenants.
East Devon DC has provided assurance that it is meeting the required outcomes in relation to complaints handling. It has revised its complaints policy and procedure following a self-assessment against the HOS Complaint Handling Code and supports complainants with reasonable adjustments. It also provides an annual report to Cabinet and tenants reporting on complaint themes and key actions taken to improve complaints handling. East Devon DC is not meeting targets for response times to stage one and stage two complaints which has led to a backlog of complaints. East Devon DC has taken steps to reduce the backlog, particularly for complaints about its repairs service, and is implementing further changes designed to improve the service. East Devon DC does not seek feedback from individuals who have made a complaint to understand the reason for the low level of satisfaction but has told us it is something it will consider.
East Devon DC has demonstrated a reasonable understanding of its position during our inspection and has plans in place to further improve the quality of services provided to tenants. We will continue to engage with East Devon DC as it continues to implement its plans and embed service changes to improve outcomes for tenants.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
East Devon DC owns around 4,160 social housing homes including general needs and sheltered housing in the South-West of England.
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 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 Regulating the standards.