Decision

Manchester City Council (00BN) - Regulatory Judgement: 14 January 2026

Published 14 January 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C2 Our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.	First grading	January 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Manchester City Council (Manchester CC) following an inspection completed in January 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C2. 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 some weaknesses in Manchester CC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed across elements of all four of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Manchester CC.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Manchester CC 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.

Our inspection covered all the homes owned by Manchester CC. Most of these homes (80%) are managed directly by Manchester CC housing services. A further 17% are managed and maintained by three Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts; Grove Village, Miles Platting, and Brunswick. The remaining 3% of homes are managed by two Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs).

During the inspection we observed a meeting of the Housing Advisory Board, the Housing Board, the Your Voice Resident Scrutiny Group, and spoke with engaged tenants. We held meetings with the leader of the council, the Executive Member for Housing and Development, senior officers from Manchester CC, as well as representatives of the PFI and TMO providers. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Manchester CC.

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 Manchester CC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – January 2026 

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date, and evidenced understanding of stock condition to inform the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants. It also requires landlords to ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). Through our inspection we gained assurance that Manchester CC has a good understanding of the condition of its homes. It has achieved 78% stock condition survey coverage over the past five years and is proactively working to increase its knowledge of the condition of all the homes that it manages, as well as those managed by the PFI and TMO providers, by the end of 2025/26. Manchester CC told us that 86% of its homes met the DHS and that it anticipates this figure will increase by the end of 2025/26. Manchester CC is using its latest stock condition information to plan future investment in the homes that it manages, alongside working with PFI and TMO providers to maintain the decency of homes under their management.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires Manchester CC to deliver an effective, efficient, and timely repairs, maintenance, and planned improvement services to its tenants. We saw that the council has implemented measures to improve the tenants’ experience of its repairs service following a sustained period of underperformance. However, the repairs service receives a high proportion of complaints, and satisfaction with the service is still below target, although this is improving. Manchester CC is aware of these weaknesses and is working with tenants and its main contractor to improve outcomes.

Manchester CC 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 Manchester CC provided evidence that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants in its homes and associated communal areas. Manchester CC has not yet fully integrated an understanding of the homes managed through PFI and TMO arrangements into its monitoring and compliance framework, although it has started to strengthen its oversight of this area. We will continue to engage with Manchester CC to ensure that this action is completed.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with the police and other relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). We gained assurance that Manchester CC collaborates effectively with partners at both a strategic and an operational level to manage ASB and hate incidents. Low tenant satisfaction with ASB is an issue for Manchester CC, but it has instigated an action plan to address this and has introduced a specific ASB team to manage complex cases which is leading to improved outcomes. There is limited strategic monitoring and reporting of ASB and tenancy sustainment performance internally or to tenants. Manchester CC acknowledges this and is making changes to strengthen its approach.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Manchester CC 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. There are gaps in Manchester CC’s policy framework and its approach to monitoring outcomes for tenants which Manchester CC is working to address.

Our inspection obtained assurance that Manchester CC treats its tenants with fairness and respect. We observed a positive and respectful culture towards tenants, as well as examples of reaching out to capture lesser heard tenant voices. Manchester CC has gaps in the information that it holds for its tenants although this is an acknowledged area of improvement. However, without comprehensive information on its tenants, Manchester CC cannot demonstrate that it is responding to diverse needs in a consistent way.

Manchester CC offers a range of opportunities for tenants to influence landlord services, providing regular communication on available opportunities. There is a strong focus on engagement at a local level and opportunities to get involved to influence and scrutinise landlord services are increasing. However, Manchester CC lacks an overall tenant engagement strategy setting out its approach, and formal tenant scrutiny opportunities are in their infancy. Consequently, the monitoring and reporting of outcomes from engagement activities is yet to be fully embedded.

During the inspection we gained assurance that Manchester CC has a clear focus on improving complaints handling performance and learning from complaints. Many of these improvements are recent and are yet to be fully embedded. While there is some oversight of complaints performance and lessons learnt, we did not see evidence that Manchester CC has overall assurance that its complaints process is accessible to all its tenants, including those in PFI or TMO managed homes. We therefore consider this to be a weakness that needs to be addressed.

Manchester CC has recently reviewed the approach to managing its PFI and TMO contracts to better align service delivery and assurance across all its homes. Manchester CC needs to do more to ensure effective oversight of all its tenancies, including those delivered through PFI contracts and TMO management agreements. Manchester CC has engaged constructively with us through the inspection process, and our ongoing engagement will focus on working with Manchester CC as it embeds its change agenda to effectively deliver improved tenant outcomes.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Manchester CC owns around 15,300 homes, mostly in north Manchester. Manchester CC manages around 12,300 of these homes directly. A further 2,600 homes are managed and maintained by three PFIs, with the remaining 400 homes managed by two TMOs.

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

Further information

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard