Decision

Haringey London Borough Council (00AP): Regulatory Judgement - 28 October 2026

Published 28 October 2026

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	October 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Haringey London Borough Council (Haringey LBC) following an inspection completed in October 2026.

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, our judgement is that there are very serious failings in how Haringey LBC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Haringey LBC needs to make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants.

Although Haringey LBC has indicated a willingness to address these failings and has taken action in some areas, we have not yet seen evidence to sufficiently assure us that it understands the potential risks to tenants and that it is able to put matters right. Based on our assessment of the seriousness of the failures, the risks that 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 Haringey LBC.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Haringey LBC 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 Repairs Board, Building Safety and Compliance Board, Housing Improvement Board and the Resident Voice Board. We met with tenants, Haringey LBC officers and the lead member for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Haringey LBC.

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

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C4 – October 2026

We have found very serious failings in how Haringey LBC 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 seriousness of the issues identified during the inspection and the significant impact, and potential impact, on Haringey LBC 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. Haringey LBC has developed a good understanding of the condition of most of its homes through its programme of physical surveys, which includes an assessment of Housing Health and Safety Rating System hazards. However, approximately 16% of its homes are non-decent. Haringey LBC has a programme of targeted investment focusing on achieving full compliance with the Decent Homes Standard by March 2028. While Haringey LBC has a clear understanding of homes which are non-decent and is using this information to target future investment, current levels of non-decency remain high, which is a weakness.

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 carried out within appropriate timescales. During our inspection, we found serious failings in the delivery of landlord health and safety requirements. In relation to fire safety, at the time of the inspection, almost 4,000 remedial actions identified during fire risk assessments were overdue, more than 1,400 of which were categorised as high risk. While Haringey LBC is taking steps to reduce this backlog and mitigate risks, the scale and persistence of the issue raises concerns about its ability to maintain compliance and prevent recurrence.

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. We found very serious failings in Haringey LBC delivering this required outcome. Haringey LBC is unable to demonstrate that tenants can easily report repairs, that repairs are completed effectively, or that tenants receive clear and consistent communication throughout the repairs process. Haringey LBC has a substantial backlog of overdue repairs including damp and mould cases, poor tenant satisfaction, and weaknesses in performance oversight and assurance. Haringey LBC is unable to provide assurance on the accuracy of its repairs information and performance. Based on the information it is reporting, Haringey LBC is unable to demonstrate that repairs are consistently completed within published timescales, with only around half of non-emergency repairs reported as completed on time in 2025/26. Despite improvement activity over several years, outcomes remain poor and tenants continue to experience delays, missed appointments and communication failures. Haringey LBC must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants. Our priority will be for Haringey LBC to provide us with evidence-based assurance that it is making progress in relation to its management and mitigation of risks to tenants.

The inspection also identified serious failings in Haringey LBC’s delivery of our adaptations outcome. Haringey LBC is not ensuring that an effective housing adaptations service is available to tenants where appropriate, with only around 9% of adaptations completed within timescales and significant delays being experienced by tenants requiring adaptations.

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 Haringey LBC meeting this outcome. Due to limitations in its current anti-social behaviour case management system and associated management information, Haringey LBC is unable to demonstrate that anti-social behaviour cases are consistently recorded, monitored and managed effectively. Haringey LBC could not provide assurance regarding the oversight of cases, the timeliness of interventions, or whether tenants consistently receive appropriate communication and support in response to anti-social behaviour and hate incidents.

During the inspection, in relation to the Tenancy Standard, we gained assurance that Haringey LBC 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 identified weaknesses in relation to the monitoring and reporting of assurance to demonstrate delivery of all outcomes of the Tenancy Standard. Performance reporting is focused primarily on operational activity rather than outcomes for tenants and does not provide sufficient assurance that tenancy management interventions are being completed consistently and within the timescales set out in its policies. Performance against tenancy audit targets remains below Haringey LBC’s performance expectations. Haringey LBC has recognised these weaknesses and has recently completed a housing management restructure intended to improve frontline service delivery and tenancy oversight.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out the outcomes landlords must deliver around transparency, fairness and respect, so that tenants can access services, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account. We identified weaknesses in how Haringey LBC understands and responds to the diverse needs of its tenants. While Haringey LBC has taken action to improve the quality of information it holds about its tenants and has examples of providing targeted support to some groups of tenants, information relating to vulnerabilities, communication needs and reasonable adjustments is not consistently available across landlord services. As a result, Haringey LBC cannot provide sufficient assurance that services are consistently tailored to tenants’ individual needs or that all tenants are able to access services and information in a way that is appropriate for them.

During our inspection, we saw evidence that Haringey LBC provides tenants with opportunities to influence and scrutinise landlord services through a range of established engagement structures. Tenants have contributed to policy development and service reviews. However, we identified weaknesses in Haringey LBC’s ability to demonstrate that this engagement is consistently delivering measurable improvements in outcomes for its tenants. Haringey LBC acknowledges that there is a challenge in ensuring that engagement activity is translated into evidenced service improvement and that the impact of engagement is communicated back to tenants. Haringey LBC is unable to provide sufficient assurance that engagement activity is consistently influencing service delivery and improving outcomes for its tenants.

We saw evidence of serious failings in how Haringey LBC treats tenants with fairness and respect, taking into account the longstanding failures in the repairs service and complaints handling which have not yet been addressed. In relation to information about landlord services and performance, we found Haringey LBC does not provide tenants with sufficient information about key services, particularly repairs and complaints. As a result, tenants are not consistently provided with the information they need to understand their landlord’s performance and hold Haringey LBC to account. During the inspection we identified that a significant proportion of tenant contact is generated by tenants seeking updates on matters they have already reported, including repairs and complaints. This suggests tenants are not routinely receiving prompt information about the progress of issues affecting them.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also sets out the requirement for landlords to ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly. We found very serious failings in Haringey LBC’s handling of complaints. Complaint volumes, maladministration findings and escalation rates are high, while performance against complaint handling timescales is poor. The scale and persistence of poor complaint handling performance show that tenants are not consistently receiving fair and timely resolution when making a complaint. Haringey LBC has undertaken previous improvement activity, but this has not resulted in sustained improvement. We have seen limited evidence that information from complaints is being used effectively to identify the root causes of issues and to drive service improvement.

We also identified very serious failings in respect of Haringey LBC’s communication with the regulator regarding its compliance with the consumer standards. Landlords are expected to communicate openly and in a timely manner about material issues that may affect their ability to deliver the outcomes of the standards and to proactively engage where actual or potential non-compliance is identified. We found that, during engagement following the publication of a previous Regulatory Notice, we were only provided with information about a specified backlog of fire remedial actions and not the full information about a new and growing backlog of more recent overdue remedial actions. The inspection identified longstanding issues and evidence of Haringey LBC not meeting the outcomes of other areas of the consumer standards, including in relation to repairs and complaints, where Haringey LBC also failed to refer these matters to us. This represents a significant failure in Haringey LBC’s arrangements for identifying, escalating and communicating material risks relating to compliance with the consumer standards.

Haringey LBC has engaged 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 continued engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that Haringey LBC 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. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as Haringey LBC seeks to resolve these issues.   

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

​Haringey LBC is located in North London and owns around approximately 15,300 social rented 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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard