Decision

Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (00CZ) - Regulatory Judgement: 14 October 2026

Updated 14 October 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C3 Our judgement is that there are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.	First grading	October 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (Kirklees MBC) following an inspection completed in October 2026.

The regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C3. 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 serious failings in how Kirklees MBC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to quality of homes outcomes in the Safety and Quality Standard and the Neighbourhood and Community Standard. We also identified some weaknesses in relation to the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for Kirklees MBC.

How we reached our judgement

We published a regulatory notice for Kirklees MBC in March 2024 due to a breach of the Home Standard (the Home Standard has now been replaced by the current consumer standards) this was because of a failure to complete remedial actions arising from fire risk assessments in a timely way and delays in addressing damp and mould issues. Since then, we have engaged with Kirklees MBC as it addresses the failings identified.

We carried out an inspection of Kirklees MBC to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme, and to assess the progress made since the regulatory notice was published. This regulatory judgement replaces the previous regulatory notice. 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 Tenant Led Panel meeting and a Homes and Neighbourhoods Improvement Board meeting. We met with tenants, councillors, senior officers and staff, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Kirklees MBC.

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 Kirklees MBC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C3 – October 2026

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up-to-date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes and communal areas. This knowledge must reliably inform their ability to provide good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants and ensure that tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. We identified serious failings in relation to Kirklees MBC meeting these outcomes as it does not currently have a sufficiently complete and evidenced understanding of the condition of its homes. At the time of inspection, it held up-to-date condition information, including an assessment of hazards, for around 25% of its homes. While Kirklees MBC has commenced an accelerated programme to survey the condition of its homes, it cannot currently provide assurance that it fully understands the condition, quality and potential hazards in its homes. This is a serious failing for Kirklees MBC.

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 gained assurance that Kirklees MBC is generally meeting health and safety requirements and has made significant progress since the issues identified in the regulatory notice published in March 2024. However, approximately 2,500 fire remedial actions remain overdue. Kirklees MBC acknowledges that this is an area of weakness and is continuing to take action to address it.

Overall, we gained assurance that Kirklees MBC is delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service. We also saw evidence that Kirklees MBC has made significant improvements to the management of damp and mould, which we identified as an issue in the regulatory notice published in March 2024. However, we identified a weakness in Kirklees MBC’s approach to ensuring potential hazards identified during repairs and damp and mould management inform its understanding of the condition of its homes. Kirklees MBC has acknowledged this weakness and plans to strengthen its reporting arrangements.

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. During the inspection, we identified serious failings in relation to this outcome. We were unable to gain assurance that tenants can easily report anti-social behaviour, are kept informed about the progress of cases, and that Kirklees MBC can demonstrate it is taking prompt and appropriate action. We found evidence of inconsistent case management, an absence of service standards and limited performance oversight. While Kirklees MBC has identified the improvements required and has approved changes to its approach for managing anti-social behaviour cases, we saw limited evidence that the changes had been embedded or have delivered improved outcomes for tenants. This is a serious failing for Kirklees MBC.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Kirklees MBC is offering tenancies and 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. We also gained assurance that Kirklees MBC is appropriately managing changes to its mutual exchange arrangements.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out the outcomes that landlords must deliver about being open with tenants and treating them with fairness and respect so that tenants can access services, raise complaints, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account. During the inspection, we gained assurance that Kirklees MBC provides opportunities for tenants to share feedback and influence how Kirklees MBC delivers its services. However, we were not assured that Kirklees MBC provides sufficient opportunities for tenants to formally scrutinise services and landlord performance. Kirklees MBC has recognised this weakness and is implementing measures to strengthen tenant scrutiny arrangements.

During the inspection, we gained some assurance that Kirklees MBC understands and responds to the diverse needs of its tenants. However, it does not hold complete information for all its tenants, and this is a weakness for Kirklees MBC. While Kirklees MBC uses the information it holds to support service delivery, incomplete tenant information limits its ability to assess whether services are consistently delivering equitable outcomes for all tenants. Kirklees MBC has plans in place to improve the quality and completeness of tenant information.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out that landlords must ensure that complaints are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly. There is evidence that Kirklees MBC addresses complaints fairly and is using complaints to identify learning and improve services. However, there is a weakness in the timeliness of complaint responses, with around 70% responded to within required timescales. Kirklees MBC has recognised this is an area of weakness and has an improvement programme in place.

Kirklees MBC is engaging constructively with us and is addressing the issues identified through this inspection. We are engaging with Kirklees MBC as it continues to address the issues set out in this judgement. Our engagement will focus on obtaining assurance that sufficient progress is being made and that risks to tenants are appropriately managed and mitigated.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Kirklees MBC is a metropolitan district council in West Yorkshire. At June 2026, it owned 21,286 homes, comprising 21,214 social rent homes and 72 affordable rent homes.

Kirklees MBC’s housing portfolio includes 465 homes within a Private Finance Initiative scheme managed by Pinnacle.

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