Decision

London Borough of Islington (00AU) - Regulatory Judgement: 13 May 2026

Published 13 May 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	May 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for London Borough of Islington (LB Islington) following an inspection completed in May 2026.

This 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 LB Islington is delivering the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard and significant improvement is needed. We also found weaknesses requiring improvement in how LB Islington is delivering some of the outcomes of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for LB Islington.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of LB Islington to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of our 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 an executive meeting, an Audit and Risk Committee meeting, a Homes and Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting, a Homes and Estates Safety Board meeting and a Resident Services Improvement Group meeting. We met with tenants, officers, councillors and the independent chair of the Homes and Estates Safety Board. We also interviewed staff and representatives from managing partners and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by LB Islington.

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 LB Islington in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer - C3 - May 2026

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to maintain 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, and ensure that tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard.

We found serious failings in relation to LB Islington meeting these outcomes as it does not have an up to date and accurate understanding of its homes including use of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System to assess potential hazards in tenants’ homes. The majority of LB Islington’s homes have a survey that is more than ten years old and does not have a formal Housing Health and Safety Rating System assessment. As a result, we do not have assurance that LB Islington’s homes meet the Decent Homes Standard.

LB Islington has initiated an accelerated programme of surveys to understand the condition of its homes, which incorporate Housing Health and Safety Rating System assessments. Information had been collected for around 13% of homes at the time of the inspection and LB Islington plans to complete the programme by the end of 2028. We will continue to engage with LB Islington to monitor its progress in delivering its planned stock condition survey programme and in maintaining decency across its homes.

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 to ensure that all actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales.

During the inspection, LB Islington reported that it is currently meeting the legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. However, it provided limited assurance on the accuracy of health and safety compliance data, which we consider a serious failing. Recent internal audits of health and safety compliance have provided limited assurance on compliance information in relation to lifts, asbestos and fire safety, and have identified issues that indicate that significant improvement is needed. LB Islington is considering an external assessment of its health and safety compliance information to provide further assurance and is developing a risk assessment of information quality across each compliance area. We will continue to engage with LB Islington as it completes the recommendations from the fire safety audit and gathers further assurance on the overall quality of its health and safety compliance information.

In relation to passenger lift safety, while LB Islington reported only one non-compliant communal lift during the inspection, it reports having over 1,000 overdue lift remedial actions, with up to 500 overdue for longer than a year. LB Islington reported that these remedial actions were not safety critical and did not require closing of the lifts. We will continue to engage with LB Islington to monitor its progress against the plans it has to address this weakness.

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. During the inspection we saw evidence that LB Islington is providing a service that meets regulatory requirements, although it is seeking further improvements in the delivery of its repairs service. In 2024/25 LB Islington completed 76% of non-emergency repairs and 95% of emergency repairs within target timescales. During the inspection LB Islington provided assurance that non-emergency repairs timescales were improving and that it has plans in place to make further improvements. We have seen evidence that the repairs service is accessible, and that LB Islington has made improvements to its communication with tenants. 

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. Through the inspection, LB Islington provided assurance that an anti-social behaviour policy is in place, underpinned by procedures and reporting that enable effective oversight of delivery against the expected outcomes of the standard.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that LB Islington allocates and lets its homes in a fair and transparent way that takes the needs of tenants and prospective tenants into account. It offers tenancies or terms of occupation that are compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community and the efficient use of housing stock, and meets all applicable legal requirements relating to the form and use of tenancy agreements or terms of occupation.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out that landlords must treat tenants and prospective tenants with fairness and respect and take action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. Throughout the inspection, LB Islington’s officers and councillors demonstrated a fair and respectful culture towards tenants. We saw evidence of LB Islington listening to tenants and shaping plans in response to tenant feedback and insight. At the Homes and Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting we observed, tenant representatives were able to question and challenge performance.

LB Islington has an understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants, but further work is needed to strengthen and close gaps in the information it holds for its tenants. To address this, LB Islington is undertaking a tenancy audit programme and uses information on tenants’ individual needs from a range of sources. We saw evidence of LB Islington using the information it holds to provide tailored support to tenants and to inform its decision making.

Through the inspection, we gained assurance that LB Islington offers a wide range of opportunities for tenants to influence policy and service delivery. These include borough-wide and online consultations and a comprehensive programme of local drop-ins and tenant forums. The Resident Services Improvement Group plays an active role in reviewing and shaping policy, and LB Islington is further developing its approach to enable more in-depth tenant scrutiny.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible information so tenants can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord and hold their landlord to account. We saw evidence that LB Islington makes performance information available to tenants in a range of formats, and that information is discussed regularly in councillor meetings and at events attended by tenants. LB Islington did not fully meet the Tenant Satisfaction Measure requirements in its 2024/25 information return to the regulator, due to system issues affecting its complaints information. LB Islington is addressing this issue and plans to seek third-party verification on its information to gain assurance that this weakness has been resolved.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out that landlords must ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. Following a service restructure, there is evidence that the timeliness of complaints handling has recently started to improve. We found that LB Islington analyses and learns from complaints and has taken action to improve service delivery, but it could do more to assure itself that its complaints process is accessible to tenants in properties managed by Tenant Management Organisations. We will continue to work with LB Islington to ensure that weaknesses in its complaints service are addressed sustainably.

LB Islington has been engaging constructively with us. It understands the issues it needs to address and is taking action to rectify the failures and weaknesses identified. We are engaging with LB Islington as it continues to address the issues set out in this judgement. Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that LB Islington is making sufficient change and progress, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement programme. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as LB Islington seeks to resolve these issues. 

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

LB Islington owns and is responsible for 25,700 social housing homes in north London.

LB Islington works with 23 Tenant Management Organisations which deliver services to around 3,000 homes, of which around 2,000 are occupied by council tenants.

2,272 of LB Islington’s homes are managed through a Private Finance Initiative contract with Partners for Improvement in Islington, of which around 1,600 are occupied by council tenants.

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