Decision

Northumberland County Council (00EM) - Regulatory Judgement: 11 February 2026

Published 11 February 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C4 Our judgement is that there are very serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered.	First grading	February 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Northumberland County Council (Northumberland CC) following an inspection completed in February 2026.

The regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C4. 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 very serious failings in Northumberland CC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Northumberland CC must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard. Significant improvement is also needed to deliver the required outcomes of the Tenancy Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

Although Northumberland CC has indicated a willingness to address these very serious failings, and has started the work in some areas, we do not yet have assurance that it understands the potential risks to tenants, and that it has the ability to put matters right. Based on our assessment of the seriousness of the failings, the risks tenants are exposed to as a result of these failings, and the fundamental changes needed to improve outcomes for tenants, we have concluded a C4 grade for Northumberland CC.

How we reached our judgement

We inspected Northumberland CC as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. 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 a Housing Assurance Board meeting, and a Tenant Influence Panel meeting. We met with tenants, officers, the leader of Northumberland CC and the portfolio holder for housing and planning. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Northumberland CC.  

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information received through routine regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings

Consumer – C4 – February 2026

We have found very serious failings in how Northumberland CC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Our judgement is based on the scale of the issues identified during the inspection and the significant impact or potential impact on Northumberland CC’s tenants. The issues include a lack of accurate and up to date information on the condition of its homes, and a failure to demonstrate it is meeting all legal health and safety requirements. Northumberland CC has indicated a willingness to address the issues, but we found limited evidence that it understands and is acting on risks to tenants and has the capability to do so. Fundamental changes are required to the service to improve outcomes for tenants. 

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs their provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants and to ensure that their tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. Northumberland CC only has up to date information on the condition of around 3% of its homes. The previous stock condition survey was undertaken in 2012 covering around 10% of homes. As a result, we do not have assurance that Northumberland CC’s homes are safe, well maintained and meet the Decent Homes Standard.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires Northumberland CC to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in its homes and communal areas and ensure that all actions arising from required health and safety assessments are conducted within appropriate timescales. Through our inspection we found very serious failings in Northumberland CC delivering this required outcome. We identified significant inconsistencies in reported information relating to health and safety obligations, and limited evidence that Northumberland CC is assured that it identifies and meets all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in its homes and communal areas. We found no evidence to support that health and safety assessments are accurately recorded, are routinely monitored or that actions are being addressed within appropriate timescales.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires Northumberland CC to provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance and planned improvements service for its tenants. We identified weaknesses in Northumberland CC delivering the required outcomes. Whilst reported performance is meeting Northumberland CC’s target timescales, we found no evidence that it has considered the needs of tenants in the delivery of its repairs service or that Northumberland CC keep its tenants informed with clear and timely communication.

Considering the significance of the absence of information on the condition of its homes and the potential risks to tenants, and the serious issues related to the accuracy and quality of information about health and safety obligations, we have concluded that there are very serious failings in Northumberland CC delivering the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard. It must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants. Northumberland CC has not yet provided evidence that it fully understands the breadth or seriousness of the issues, or been able to assure us of its ability to put these matters right. We will work with Northumberland CC to ensure that any relevant risks to tenants are effectively managed and mitigated as a priority, while it undertakes the improvements required.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out the outcomes landlords must deliver about being open with tenants and treating them with fairness and respect so that tenants can access services, raise complaints, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account. Through our inspection, we found serious failings in Northumberland CC delivering the required outcomes of the standard. We saw some evidence that tenants can participate in tenant led activities and opportunities, although we found that Northumberland CC does not provide meaningful opportunities for tenants to scrutinise performance and influence services. In relation to complaint handling, Northumberland CC does not respond to all complaints in a timely way. Northumberland CC has limited systems in place at this time to ensure information about its tenants remains up to date and it did not provide evidence of using the information it does hold to ensure equitable outcomes for tenants.

We also identified serious failings in Northumberland CC meeting the required outcomes of the Tenancy Standard. Northumberland CC could not provide evidence that it was offering tenancies or terms of occupation that were 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. Northumberland CC is making improvements in this area.

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. We identified weaknesses in Northumberland CC meeting these outcomes as it did not provide evidence that it is taking prompt and appropriate action in response to anti-social behaviour cases and hate incidents.

Throughout the inspection, Northumberland CC has engaged constructively with us. It needs to urgently develop a full understanding of current risks to tenants and the root causes of the failings identified. This will enable it to develop a comprehensive improvement plan to drive fundamental change across all of the areas identified and sustained improvement for tenants, and to share this plan with tenants. Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that Northumberland CC is making sufficient change and progress, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement programme.

Our priority will be that risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as Northumberland CC seeks to resolve these issues.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Northumberland CC owns around 8,200 social housing homes in North East England.

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