London Borough of Barnet (00AC) - Regulatory Judgement: 29 October 2025
Published 29 October 2025
Applies to England
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Our Judgement
| Grade/Judgement | Change | Date of assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer | C1 Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence. |
First grading | October 2025 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for the London Borough of Barnet (LB Barnet) following an inspection completed in October 2025.
This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C1. 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 LB Barnet is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and is making effective use of its systems to identify and address potential issues and areas for improvement. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for LB Barnet.
How we reached our judgement
We carried out an inspection of LB Barnet 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 LB Barnet Cabinet, and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. We also observed LB Barnet’s arms-length management organisation (ALMO), Barnet Homes, including one of its board meetings and its Resident Board. We met with tenants, the leader of the council, the Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration, the Chair of the Barnet Group Board, as well as senior staff. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by LB Barnet.
Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information received from LB Barnet in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.
Summary of findings
Consumer – C1 – October 2025
LB Barnet meets the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard. It has an accurate record of the condition of its homes collected through physical surveys over the past five years. This includes an assessment against the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. It is actively targeting properties where it has been unable to gain access to increase its knowledge and keep its information up to date. LB Barnet reports that 97% of its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) and it has a costed programme to remedy homes that do not meet the DHS.
LB Barnet has demonstrated that it is taking all reasonable steps to comply with statutory health and safety requirements in line with the Safety and Quality Standard. During the inspection, LB Barnet provided evidence that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants in its homes and associated communal areas. LB Barnet has a programme of outstanding fire remedial activity that is in delivery, with clear plans for the completion of these works.
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. LB Barnet provided evidence that overall, it is delivering an effective repairs service. The delivery of the repairs and maintenance service to tenants has previously been below target. LB Barnet has made recent changes, working closely with its tenants to develop a robust action plan, and outcomes are improving. It is also driving change through its sub-contractor framework to ensure that tenants receive a consistent service from all repairs providers.
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 (ASB) and hate incidents. We gained assurance that LB Barnet collaborates effectively with partners at both a strategic and an operational level to manage ASB and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides social housing. LB Barnet refreshed its ASB and Hate Crime policy in consultation with members, tenants, and the wider community earlier this year, and has introduced a specific ASB team to manage complex cases.
In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that LB Barnet 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.
We gained assurance that LB Barnet is committed to treating tenants with fairness and respect in line with the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. LB Barnet uses the information it holds to tailor services to meet tenants’ diverse needs and deliver fair and equitable outcomes. Our inspection found that LB Barnet has some gaps in knowledge of its tenants, although this is an acknowledged area of improvement. LB Barnet is taking a proactive approach to increase its understanding and is conducting analysis on the information that it holds as well as using transactional surveys to obtain a real-time perspective on tenant outcomes.
LB Barnet gathers tenants’ views in a range of formal and informal ways and provides tenants with meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies and services. The Resident Board is the main resident-led scrutiny body, and we observed that this board was able to effectively influence strategic priorities, policies, and service improvements. We saw evidence that tenant feedback has positively impacted on the performance of the complaints and repairs services. LB Barnet is actively working on its approach to communicating with its tenants, which it has identified as a theme in feedback from its surveys and complaints.
LB Barnet provides clear and accessible information to tenants about its services and its performance. We found that LB Barnet addresses complaints fairly, promptly and effectively and that there is learning from service failures. LB Barnet is making changes to address a weakness in its complaints handling system to improve confidence in its complaints performance data.
We found that LB Barnet works collaboratively with Barnet Homes as its ALMO to identify issues and put plans in place to remedy and minimise any recurrence. LB Barnet undertakes a substantial audit programme to assure itself on the quality of the services delivered to tenants, and there are effective mechanisms to provide regular oversight of service delivery.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
LB Barnet owns around 9,200 homes. More than 70% of its homes are flats and maisonettes, some built using non-traditional construction methods. The management of the council’s housing stock is provided by its ALMO, Barnet 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. In Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our new 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