Decision

North Northamptonshire Council (5129) - Regulatory Judgement: 25 February 2026

Published 25 February 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	February 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for North Northamptonshire Council following an inspection completed in February 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading 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 North Northamptonshire Council delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard and Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for North Northamptonshire Council. 

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of North Northamptonshire Council 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 North Northamptonshire Council’s Housing Improvement and Assurance Board and a Tenant Advisory Panel meeting. We met with tenants, officers, and the councillor who is the portfolio holder for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by North Northamptonshire Council. 

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by North Northamptonshire Council in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity. 

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C2 – February 2026

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up‑to‑date, and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes. This understanding should reliably inform the delivery of good quality, well maintained, and safe homes for tenants, and ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. North Northamptonshire Council has provided assurance that it holds accurate, up‑to‑date, and evidenced stock condition information for 83% of its homes, with accelerated plans in place to survey the remaining homes. North Northamptonshire Council reported that approximately 14% of its homes do not currently meet the Decent Homes Standard and it has established plans to ensure all its homes meet the standard by 2028.

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 have assurance that North Northamptonshire Council is broadly meeting its obligations in relation to landlord health and safety, and performance on legally required landlord health and safety testing is good. However, we identified weaknesses in the oversight and scrutiny of health and safety remedial actions. North Northamptonshire Council has confirmed that this will be addressed in the coming months.

We identified that there are weaknesses in North Northamptonshire Council delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service for its non-emergency repairs. North Northamptonshire Council had already identified the need to make improvements in this area before our inspection. We saw evidence of actions taken, including an increase in resources to improve responsiveness. We will continue to engage with North Northamptonshire Council and seek assurance that progress is sustained to ensure that outcomes for tenants continue to improve.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work with appropriate partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. We gained assurance that North Northamptonshire Council works proactively and constructively with relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour in its neighbourhoods. However, there are weaknesses in North Northamptonshire Council’s monitoring of anti-social behaviour, and this needs to be improved.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account in their decision‑making, enable tenants to scrutinise and influence how landlord services are delivered, and communicate how tenants’ views have been considered. North Northamptonshire Council gathers tenants’ views through a number of different methods, and tenants are provided with meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies, and services. We saw evidence that tenant feedback has positively influenced service delivery.

During the inspection, we gained assurance that North Northamptonshire Council is committed to treating its tenants with fairness and respect, and we observed a positive culture towards tenants. However, North Northamptonshire Council does not fully understand the diverse needs of its tenants across all protected characteristics and so is unable to ensure services are accessible and equitable. North Northamptonshire Council has acknowledged this as an area of weakness and is taking steps to expand on and improve the information it holds about its tenants. It has also recognised the need to strengthen its analysis of landlord service delivery to provide assurance on accessibility, equity, and impact, and plans to introduce these improvements in April 2026.

We have seen evidence that North Northamptonshire Council provides a range of service and performance information to tenants. It is using its latest Tenant Satisfaction Measures results to understand tenant dissatisfaction and improve services through tenant scrutiny, and it shares service and performance information with all tenants through regular newsletters that are developed with tenants.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also requires landlords to ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly. We found evidence that North Northamptonshire Council has an accessible complaints process, although responses had not been timely. 

We have seen evidence that North Northamptonshire Council has sought to better understand how it can improve its complaints handling and has taken action to make improvements in this area. Through our ongoing engagement with North Northamptonshire Council, we will seek assurance that change has been embedded and improved outcomes are being delivered for tenants.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that North Northamptonshire Council meets the required outcomes in relation to tenure and has a clear tenancy policy. North Northamptonshire Council has recently completed an internal review of its tenancy agreements to ensure they are fit for purpose.

North Northamptonshire Council has engaged constructively with us and has demonstrated that it understands the issues it needs to address. It is taking action to address the weaknesses identified. This includes completing its stock condition survey plans to carry out remediation works to ensure homes meet the Decent Homes Standard, improving the timeliness of non-emergency repairs, strengthening its performance reporting and improving its complaint response times.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

North Northamptonshire Council is located in Northamptonshire and owns around 8,080 social housing 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. 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