Decision

Gosport Borough Council (24UF): Regulatory Judgement - 17 December 2025

Published 17 December 2025

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C4 Our judgement is that there are very serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered.	First grading	December 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Gosport Borough Council (Gosport BC) following an inspection completed in December 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C4. 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 very serious failings in Gosport BC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Gosport BC needs to make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard. Significant improvements are also needed to deliver the required outcomes under the Neighbourhood and Community Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

Although Gosport BC has indicated a willingness to address these failings and has started work in some areas, we have not yet seen evidence to sufficiently assure us that it is able to put matters right, including taking prompt action to gain assurance that tenants are safe. Based on our assessment of the seriousness of the failures, the risks tenants are exposed to as a result of these failures, and the fundamental changes needed to improve outcomes for tenants, we have concluded a C4 grade for Gosport BC.

How we reached our judgement

We inspected Gosport BC 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 Housing Board, a briefing with the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Housing Board, and a Resident Opinion Panel meeting. As part of the inspection, we met with engaged tenants, Gosport BC’s officers and councillors, including the Leader of the Council and the Chair of the Housing Board. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Gosport BC. 

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

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C4 – December 2025

We have found very serious failings in how Gosport BC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, and evidence that this has had a significant impact on service outcomes for tenants. Our judgement is based on the scale and breadth of the issues identified during the inspection and the significant impact or potential impact on Gosport BC’s tenants. The very serious failings identified include a lack of assurance that the council is meeting legal health and safety requirements including completing all necessary checks and remedial actions, and a lack of accurate and up to date information on the quality of tenants’ homes, including any potential hazards in homes. Gosport BC has demonstrated a willingness to resolve these issues, but we found limited evidence that it fully understands the scale and breadth of the issues and limited evidence that it has the capability to effectively address them. Fundamental changes are required to the service to improve outcomes for tenants.

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 their provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants, and to ensure that their homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). We found very serious failings in Gosport BC meeting these outcomes as it does not have an up to date and accurate understanding of its homes and it has not used the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) to assess potential hazards in tenants’ homes. A 20% sample of stock condition surveys was last carried out in 2012 and a third of its properties have no survey on record. As a result, we do not have assurance that Gosport BC’s homes are safe, well-maintained, and meet the DHS.

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 and ensure that all actions arising from required health and safety assessments are conducted within appropriate timescales. Through our inspection we found very serious failings in Gosport BC delivering this required outcome. Overall, we found that reporting on compliance performance is insufficient, and we do not have assurance that remedial actions arising from health and safety inspections are accurately recorded or actioned in a timely way.

In respect of electrical safety, Gosport BC has over 100 category 2 remedial actions, some of which have been outstanding for up to seven years, and over 300 overdue electrical safety checks, of which more than half have been overdue for longer than 12 months. While Gosport BC now has a plan in place to address this position, we did not see sufficient evidence that it is mitigating risks to tenants in the meantime.

In relation to fire safety, Gosport BC has over 900 overdue fire safety remedial actions that have been overdue for two years or more, with some that have been overdue since 2012. Although Gosport BC reported that none of the actions were high risk and it has mitigations in place, we saw no evidence to provide assurance that there is a plan in place to address the outstanding work.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires Gosport BC to provide an effective, efficient, and timely repairs and maintenance and planned improvements service for its tenants. We found very serious failings in Gosport BC delivering this required outcome. Gosport BC has not had planned improvement programmes in place since 2023 and is unable to evidence that it sets timescales for the completion of planned improvements or that it keeps tenants informed about planned improvements to their homes with clear and timely communication. Gosport BC does not have assurance that its repairs data is accurate, and it does not have sufficient visibility of repairs performance or oversight of its contractor to be assured that it takes appropriate steps to deliver repairs and maintenance within set timescales.

Taking into account the significance of the issues across a number of health and safety areas, the lack of assurance that Gosport BC has appropriate mitigations in place to ensure the safety of tenants, gaps in the information on the condition of homes and lack of planned maintenance and issues with the accuracy of the reported repairs performance, we have concluded there are very serious failings in Gosport BC delivering the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard. It must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants. Gosport BC has not yet provided evidence to assure us of its ability to put these matters right. We will work with Gosport BC to ensure that any relevant risks to tenants are effectively managed and mitigated as a priority, while it undertakes the improvements required.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out the outcomes landlords must deliver around transparency, fairness and respect so that tenants can access services, raise complaints, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account. Through our inspection, we found serious failings in Gosport BC delivering some of the required outcomes in this area.

We saw some evidence that Gosport BC is treating tenants and prospective tenants with fairness and respect, but there are weaknesses in the council’s approach. We also identified serious failings in Gosport BC’s understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants. Although Gosport BC has started a new programme to collect tenant information, there is currently a lack of comprehensive information to allow Gosport BC to fully understand the diverse needs of tenants, assess whether fair and equitable outcomes are being delivered, and ensure that services and information are truly accessible and tailored to individual needs and preferences.

We also identified serious failings in relation to Gosport BC’s engagement with tenants. While there are some mechanisms in place for tenants to engage with Gosport BC, the council was unable to provide assurance that these activities offer meaningful opportunities to scrutinise or influence landlord services. There was limited performance information shared with tenants and the quality and range of information available to tenants about landlord services is insufficient to allow tenants to understand what standard of service they can expect, and to hold Gosport BC to account.

Through the inspection, we saw evidence that complaints handled directly by Gosport BC are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly, but Gosport BC is unable to evidence that it is fully assured on the handling of complaints by its repairs contractor. We consider this to be a serious failing that needs addressing. 

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 identified serious failings in Gosport BC meeting these outcomes as its policy and information provided to tenants was not up to date or in line with practice, and it was unable to provide sufficient assurance that all outcomes for tenants are being met.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we found reasonable assurance that Gosport BC 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, we have identified weaknesses in relation to the information provided to tenants and the monitoring and reporting of assurance to demonstrate delivery of all outcomes of the Tenancy Standard.

We identified serious failings in respect of Gosport BC’s communication with us regarding its performance against the consumer standards. Landlords must communicate in a timely manner with us on all material issues that might result in their failure to deliver the outcomes of our standards. Evidence gathered during the inspection demonstrated that Gosport BC was aware that it was not delivering a range of outcomes in the consumer standards for a significant period of time, but it did not self-refer to us. Due to the seriousness, scale and breadth of the issues, we consider the lack of self-referral to be a serious failing.  

Since the findings of the inspection, Gosport BC has been engaging constructively with us. It needs to urgently develop a full understanding of current risks to tenants and the root causes of the failings identified. This will enable it to develop a comprehensive improvement plan to achieve fundamental change and sustained improvement for tenants. Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that Gosport BC understands and is mitigating risks to tenants, is making sufficient progress to improve outcomes for tenants, and is sharing its improvement plan and progress with its tenants.

Our priority will be that risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as Gosport BC seeks to resolve these issues.   

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Gosport BC is located in Hampshire and owns around 2,900 social housing 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