Decision

North West Leicestershire District Council (31UH) - Regulatory Judgement: 12 November 2025

Published 12 November 2025

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	November 2025

Reason for publication

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

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 North West Leicestershire DC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for North West Leicestershire DC.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of North West Leicestershire 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 consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection we observed meetings of the Housing Improvement Board, the tenant scrutiny panel, the audit and governance committee and the corporate scrutiny committee. We met with involved tenants, officers, and councillors, including the leader of North West Leicestershire DC. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by North West Leicestershire 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 supplied by North West Leicestershire DC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 - November 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 that reliably informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants and to ensure that tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). Currently 81% of the council’s homes have had a full stock condition survey within the last five years. North West Leicestershire DC is carrying out further validation work and developing a programme to survey the remainder of the stock by the end of 2026. North West Leicestershire DC reported that 87% of its homes meet the DHS and it has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to investing in its stock and is working on a revised asset management strategy to be published in 2026.

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 ensure that all actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales. Overall, we received assurance that North West Leicestershire DC is currently meeting the legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. During the inspection North West Leicestershire DC reported some overdue checks and actions across fire and electrical safety. Although the position has now improved, North West Leicestershire DC will need to ensure continued focus on performance in this area.

North West Leicestershire DC lacks assurance regarding the accuracy of some of its compliance data. The inspection found a reliance on different data sources and a need to further improve the quality and storage of some compliance data. North West Leicestershire DC recognises this and is progressing work to implement a dedicated compliance management system.

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. Through the inspection we saw some evidence that North West Leicestershire DC is providing a repairs and maintenance service that meets regulatory requirements, but this requires improvement. Although the council has reduced a backlog of outstanding repairs, it is not currently meeting its targets in relation to the timely completion of repairs and is working with a third party to carry out a review of its front-line repairs service. We will continue to engage with North West Leicestershire DC to ensure that improvements around its repairs service and data integrity remain an area of focus.

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 in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. Through the inspection, we saw evidence that North West Leicestershire DC has an effective approach to dealing with ASB and hate crime and that it meets regulatory requirements.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that North West Leicestershire 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. North West Leicestershire DC’s Tenancy Strategy and accompanying policy outline its approach to tenancy management and we saw evidence of appropriate procedures and systems being in place to ensure the policy is applied.

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. Through our inspection North West Leicestershire DC demonstrated a respectful and positive culture towards tenants, and engaged tenants told us that they felt listened to and that their work was having a positive impact on outcomes for tenants.

North West Leicestershire DC has evidenced some understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants but needs to strengthen the information it holds to improve the use of tenant data to ensure it is delivering fair and equitable outcomes. North West Leicestershire DC was not able to provide clear evidence of how it proactively uses tenant data to inform service delivery and acknowledges that it needs to develop its approach to this.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also 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 have limited assurance that the quality and range of information that North West Leicestershire DC makes available to tenants meets the expectations set out in the standard. The council’s website contains several examples of policies and handbooks that are out of date, including for repairs, and there is limited performance information for tenants outside of the formal tenant engagement groups.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account when making decisions about the delivery of landlord services. The council has a well-established tenant scrutiny panel, that inspects specific service areas and we saw evidence that this work has been used to influence service delivery outcomes. North West Leicestershire DC is in the process of changing its approach to engagement and has consulted tenants about this. It has developed a new group for tenant association representatives to attend, as well as widening its proposed structure for tenant involvement. These changes are still being developed and embedded.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out that landlords must ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. The inspection found weaknesses in how North West Leicestershire DC delivers these outcomes. The council is not meeting relevant timescales for responding to complaints. Reporting demonstrated some learning from complaints although this had not yet led to improved outcomes for tenants. We will continue to engage with the council as it works to understand the reasons for poor complaints performance and develops a plan to improve outcomes for tenants.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

North West Leicestershire DC owns approximately 4,000 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