Decision

South Holland District Council (32UF) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 July 2025

Published 30 July 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	July 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for South Holland District Council (South Holland DC) following an inspection completed in July 2025. 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 the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for South Holland DC.  

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of South Holland 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: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

We inspected South Holland DC as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. During the inspection we observed meetings of South Holland DC’s Performance Monitoring Panel and a Compliance Clinic. We also spoke with tenants, interviewed staff and elected members, including the leader of South Holland DC, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by South Holland DC.

Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection. This includes an analysis of information supplied by South Holland DC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – 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 ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standards (DHS). South Holland DC holds records at an individual property level, of the condition of around 70% of its homes and is reporting that 98.38% of its homes meet the DHS. It is continuing to make progress on its ongoing stock condition survey programme and has clear plans to ensure that physical surveys of the condition of all its homes have been undertaken by November 2025.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to complete all required health and safety checks. South Holland DC provided evidence to show that it is meeting the legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. Risks and remedial actions identified are completed within timescales and performance is actively monitored by senior officers and councillors. We have seen evidence that South Holland DC is managing the risks associated with damp and mould and has introduced a more proactive approach to remedial works in response to tenants’ feedback.  

Landlords must provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which they are responsible. South Holland DC’s repairs and maintenance completion times are in line with service standards, however, South Holland DC has identified that improvement is needed in relation to tenant satisfaction. We saw evidence that South Holland DC is working with contractors to drive improvements in communication and appointment times. We will continue to engage with South Holland DC in relation to its repairs service and will seek assurance that changes will be embedded to improve outcomes for tenants.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard states that landlords must 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. We saw evidence that South Holland DC works in partnership with relevant organisations to effectively deter and tackle ASB. Information on how to report ASB is available online and in an annual report sent to tenants. South Holland DC is engaging with tenants to further improve the service. There is scope to strengthen South Holland DC’s reporting and tracking of case handling through the inclusion of ASB trends and outcomes. South Holland DC states that responsibility for reporting is moving from the corporate centre to the landlord service to provide greater focus.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that South Holland DC’s allocations policy offers tenancies compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock. The inspection also provided assurance about the work that South Holland DC does to help tenants to sustain their tenancies.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard states that landlords are required to provide accessible information so tenants can understand what to expect from their landlord and hold them to account. It also requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account when making decisions about the delivery of landlord services, and ensure that complaints are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly.

The inspection found evidence that South Holland DC provides a range of relevant and accessible information to tenants, including its performance in delivering landlord services. Performance is actively monitored at a monthly compliance clinic, attended by the portfolio holder with responsibility for housing, with further reporting to the member scrutiny function and cabinet. However, we found weaknesses as most information for tenants was only readily available digitally and there was no formal mechanism to enable effective tenant scrutiny.

During the inspection we gained assurance that South Holland DC is committed to treating tenants with fairness and respect. We saw evidence that South Holland DC has some understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants following a tenant census, but there are some weaknesses. Whilst it was able to provide some examples of how this information has been used to improve service delivery, South Holland DC needs to undertake more work to ensure there is a consistent approach to maintaining and using the information it holds about its tenants, including routine analysis of access to services, in order to ensure all tenants have equitable access to its services.

South Holland DC has recognised weaknesses in its approach to tenant engagement. We found some examples of how tenants’ feedback has directly and positively impacted on service delivery, particularly in relation to sheltered housing. However, South Holland DC was not able to evidence a range of mechanisms engaging the broader tenant base, and there were no formal scrutiny arrangements in place. South Holland DC has commissioned external support to improve its approach to tenant engagement and scrutiny, and has consulted with tenants on a new strategy. It has plans to work with tenants further to implement this and we will continue to monitor how the council is strengthening its approach to tenant engagement and influence.

South Holland DC has recently made changes to its complaints handling service following feedback from its tenants and response time performance. During the inspection we gained assurance that these changes have impacted positively on response times and tenant satisfaction in relation to complaints. South Holland DC was also able to evidence that it analyses and learns from complaints via a monthly Housing Complaints Clinic, and that learning from complaints has led to service improvements.

South Holland DC has made a strategic shift to prioritise the landlord service and has generally demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and has plans in place to deliver improvements via its Housing Transformation Programme. We will continue to engage with South Holland DC as it develops and delivers its improvement plans and seek assurance that there are improved outcomes for tenants.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

South Holland DC was formed in 1974, and in 2021 joined the South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership, sharing management and other staff along with Boston Borough Council and East Lindsey District Council. South Holland DC owns and manages around 3,800 social rent 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

• Decent Homes Standard