Decision

Tamworth Borough Council (41UK) - Regulatory Judgement: 28 October 2026

Published 28 October 2026

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	October 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Tamworth Borough Council (Tamworth BC) following an inspection completed in October 2026.

This 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 how Tamworth BC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard. We also found weaknesses requiring improvement in how Tamworth BC is delivering some of the outcomes of the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and the Safety and Quality Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for Tamworth BC. 

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Tamworth BC to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of our 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 Tamworth BC’s Housing and Homelessness Advisory Board and Tenant Consultative Group. We met with tenants, officers, the leader of the council and the portfolio holder for housing. We also interviewed staff and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Tamworth BC.

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 Tamworth BC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C3 – October 2026

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements in relation to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas, including ensuring that all actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales. We found serious failings in how Tamworth BC is delivering these outcomes and that significant improvement is needed.

During our inspection, we identified a lack of oversight in the completion, tracking and reporting of safety remedial actions and Tamworth BC could not provide assurance that remedial actions relating to fire safety were being completed within appropriate timescales. In addition, Tamworth BC does not have a Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy as required by the Building Safety Act 2022. We will continue to engage with Tamworth BC to ensure these serious failings are addressed.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to maintain an accurate, up to date, and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes and communal areas. This knowledge must reliably inform their ability to provide good quality, well-maintained, and safe homes, and ensure that tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard.

Tamworth BC has used an external company to complete physical surveys for 87% of its homes, but we identified a weakness in its approach to reporting hazards, including a lack of detail on the number of overdue hazards and the timeliness of remedial action. We also identified a weakness in ensuring that information relating to the condition of its homes remains up to date and is used to inform planned improvements to tenants’ homes. We will continue to engage with Tamworth BC as it improves its understanding of the quality of its homes and uses this information to inform delivery of its improvement programmes.

During the inspection we gained assurance that Tamworth BC is delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs service, although it has identified some weaknesses that it is addressing. Tamworth BC recognises that it needs to strengthen its processes for monitoring performance and validating information, and has worked with an external company to develop a detailed repairs performance dashboard. It has also introduced new oversight arrangements to strengthen contract management and accountability. We will continue to engage with Tamworth BC to ensure that these improvements are embedded and result in improved outcomes for tenants.

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. Through the inspection, we saw evidence that Tamworth BC works with partners and other agencies to resolve cases, but we identified a weakness in its approach to performance reporting and oversight. Tamworth BC was unable to provide evidence that anti-social behaviour case handling outcomes are routinely monitored, or that performance information is used to drive improvements.  

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Tamworth BC is offering tenancies or terms of occupation which are compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of their homes. Tamworth BC has a lettings policy that sets out its approach to ensuring all properties are let in a fair and transparent way and considers the needs of tenants and prospective tenants.

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. During the inspection we observed a respectful approach to tenants, and we saw evidence that Tamworth BC has some understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants. We saw examples of information being used to improve service delivery at an individual level, but the lack of a consistent approach to using tenant information limits Tamworth BC’s ability to assess that service outcomes for tenants are fair and equitable.

We saw limited evidence of meaningful opportunities for tenants to scrutinise their landlord’s performance and influence how its services are delivered. Tamworth BC has recognised these weaknesses and has commissioned external support to improve its approach to tenant engagement and scrutiny. It has consulted tenants on a new strategy and plans to work with tenants to implement this.

We also found weaknesses in Tamworth BC’s approach to collecting and providing performance information to tenants. There was limited performance information available for tenants to scrutinise the housing service’s performance. Tamworth BC has told us that it plans to improve this through a new performance dashboard. We will continue to engage with Tamworth BC to ensure that these improvements are embedded and result in improved outcomes for tenants.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out that landlords must ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly. We saw evidence that Tamworth BC has started to make changes to its complaints service, however these are not yet delivering improved outcomes for tenants in relation to complaints handling performance. Tamworth BC was also unable to evidence that it identifies learning from complaints and acknowledged that further action is required in this area. We will continue to engage with Tamworth BC as it implements improvements to address the weaknesses identified.

Tamworth BC has engaged constructively with us during the inspection. It understands the issues it needs to address and is taking action to rectify the serious failings and weaknesses identified. We will continue to engage with Tamworth BC as it addresses the issues set out in this judgement. Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that Tamworth BC is making sufficient progress towards improved outcomes for tenants, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement programme. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as Tamworth BC seeks to resolve these issues. 

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Tamworth BC is a district level authority providing services to the borough of Tamworth in the county of Staffordshire. Tamworth BC manages 4,265 social rent homes, including 365 independent living 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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard