Decision

North Kesteven District Council (32UE) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 July 2025

Published 30 July 2025

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	July 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for North Kesteven District Council (North Kesteven DC) following an inspection completed in July 2025.

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 North Kesteven DC’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard. There are also some weaknesses in North Kesteven DC’s delivery of the outcomes in the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for North Kesteven DC.

How we reached our judgement

We conducted an inspection of North Kesteven DC 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: the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, the Safety and Quality Standard, the Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection we observed North Kesteven DC’s Executive Board, the Resources and Scrutiny Committee and the Tenants’ Liaison Panel (comprising of tenants and North Kesteven DC officers). We met with tenants, officers, the leader of North Kesteven DC, and the councillors who are the portfolio holders for housing and for complaints. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by North Kesteven DC.

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 North Kesteven DC through routine regulatory returns and other regulatory activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C3 – July 2025 

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes at an individual property level based on a physical assessment of all homes, and to ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). We saw evidence that most of North Kesteven DC’s homes had received some form of survey in the last five years, including as part of stock condition, damp and mould, or retrofit programmes. However, a requirement of meeting the DHS is the absence of category 1 Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards. At the time of the inspection, only one third of North Kesteven DC’s homes had a HHSRS assessment in place.

Whilst North Kesteven DC provided evidence that it had focused its stock condition surveys on properties most at risk of not meeting the DHS, it cannot be fully assured about its level of compliance at this time. We therefore lack assurance that the council is meeting the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard in relation to the decency of its homes. This is a serious failing. At the time of the inspection, North Kesteven DC had implemented plans to address this failing, and we will continue to monitor these through our ongoing work with North Kesteven DC.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to complete all required health and safety checks. North Kesteven DC is meeting the legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. However, we identified that North Kesteven DC needed to improve the reporting of health and safety compliance so that councillors and tenants have effective oversight and scrutiny of performance. This includes reporting around asbestos safety, health and safety remedial actions, and the installation of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

The Safety and Quality Standard 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. Whilst we saw that emergency repairs are generally delivered in line with service standards, North Kesteven DC is not meeting its targets for routine repairs or its voids service. North Kesteven DC has plans to address underperformance in these areas, which we will continue to monitor. 

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with relevant organisations to promote positive outcomes for tenants. North Kesteven DC demonstrated that it works effectively with partner agencies, including the police and charities, on a range of interventions to deter and tackle anti‑social behaviour (ASB) and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides its homes. We saw evidence that North Kesteven DC responds to reports of ASB in accordance with its policy and has acted on the recommendations from reviews of this service to improve outcomes for tenants.

Regarding the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that North Kesteven DC 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. 

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible information so that tenants can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord and hold their landlord to account. It also requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account when making decisions about the delivery of landlord services. We saw evidence that North Kesteven DC provided relevant and accessible information to tenants about its landlord services. At the time of the inspection, we saw limited evidence of tenant scrutiny leading to meaningful changes or influencing services. However, North Kesteven DC had identified this as an area of focus and, whilst this remains an area of weakness, we saw evidence of scrutiny and other engagement opportunities for tenants increasing. We will continue to engage with North Kesteven DC as it embeds its approach.

During the inspection we gained assurance that North Kesteven DC is committed to treating tenants and prospective tenants with fairness and respect. We also saw evidence that North Kesteven DC has some understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants, but it needs to undertake more work to improve the information it holds about its tenants. This will enhance North Kesteven DC’s ability to tailor services to tenants’ individual needs and provide assurance that it is delivering fair and equitable outcomes. North Kesteven DC has identified this as an area of weakness and has plans to improve the amount and quality of information it holds about its tenants.

There are some weaknesses in North Kesteven DC’s complaints handling service. It is not fully compliant with the Housing Ombudsman Service’s Complaint Handling Code, and it cannot fully evidence how learning from complaints positively impacts on its service. North Kesteven DC has an action plan in place to address these concerns, and we will continue to engage with North Kesteven DC to gain assurance as it works to improve outcomes for tenants in this area.

North Kesteven DC has been engaging constructively with us. It understands the issues it needs to address and is taking action to rectify the failures identified. North Kesteven DC has confirmed that a comprehensive stock condition survey programme, including HHSRS assessments, is underway to address the serious failing identified during this inspection. It also has existing plans to address the weaknesses identified across the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

We are continuing to engage with North Kesteven DC as it addresses the issues outlined in this regulatory judgement. Our engagement is intensive, and we are seeking evidence that gives us assurance that sufficient change and progress is being made. Our priority is that risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated, and that North Kesteven DC delivers its improvement plan. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as North Kesteven DC seeks to resolve these issues.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

North Kesteven DC is located in Lincolnshire and owns around 3,900 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.

Further information

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard