Tandridge District Council (43UK) Regulatory Judgement: 17 September 2025
Published 17 September 2025
Applies to England
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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 | September 2025 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Tandridge District Council (Tandridge DC) following an inspection completed in September 2025.
The regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C4. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grading 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 Tandridge DC’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and it must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, the Neighbourhood and Community Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.
Although Tandridge DC has indicated a willingness to address these failings, we have not yet seen evidence to sufficiently assure us that it understands the potential risks to tenants and of its ability to put matters right, including taking prompt action to gain assurance that tenants are safe. Based on our assessment of the seriousness of the failures and the changes needed to improve outcomes for tenants, we have concluded a C4 grade for Tandridge DC.
How we reached our judgement
We inspected Tandridge DC 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 Committee meeting and a Residents’ Forum meeting. We met with tenants, officers, the leader of the council and the chair of the Housing Committee. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Tandridge DC.
Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information 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 – September 2025
We have found very serious failings in how Tandridge DC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, and evidence that this has had a significant impact on service outcomes for tenants. Our judgement is based on the scale and breadth of the issues identified during the inspection and the significant impact or potential impact on Tandridge DC’s tenants. The very serious failings include a lack of assurance that the council is meeting legal health and safety requirements including completing all necessary checks and remedial actions, and a lack of accurate and up to date information on the quality of tenants’ homes, including any potential hazards in homes. Tandridge DC has demonstrated an understanding of the failings and a willingness to resolve these issues, though we have seen limited evidence that it fully understands the scale and breadth of the issues 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 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 required health and safety assessments are conducted within appropriate timescales. Through our inspection we found very serious failings in Tandridge DC delivering this required outcome. Overall, we do not have assurance as to the integrity and accuracy of information across all areas of health and safety. We consider these to be very serious failings, and Tandridge DC must make fundamental changes to ensure tenants are safe.
In respect of fire safety, Tandridge DC could not demonstrate that it is adequately managing and mitigating fire safety risks to tenants. At the time of the inspection, over 1,000 fire risk assessment remedial actions were overdue. Although Tandridge DC reported that none of the actions were high risk, we did not see plans around how it will address outstanding work or evidence of how it is mitigating fire safety risks to tenants.
In relation to electrical safety, at the time of inspection nearly 400 homes did not have an electrical safety condition check. Tandridge DC self-referred this matter to us before the inspection and has made progress in addressing the outstanding works, but further work is required by Tandridge DC to ensure that it holds accurate information.
Alongside the requirements in relation to health and safety, the Safety and Quality Standard also 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 (DHS). We found very serious failings in Tandridge DC meeting these outcomes as it does not have an up to date and accurate understanding of its homes and it has not used the Housing Health and Safety Rating System to assess potential hazards in tenants’ homes. Stock condition surveys were last carried out in 2016, but Tandridge DC does not hold records from this work and information has not been updated since then. As a result, we do not have assurance that Tandridge DC’s homes are safe, well-maintained, and meet the DHS.
The Safety and Quality Standard also requires Tandridge DC to provide an effective, efficient, and timely repairs and maintenance and planned improvements service for its tenants. There are significant issues with the quality and accuracy of the repairs performance information. An internal audit found that repairs management information was not sufficiently reliable to enable monitoring and reporting on delivery and performance. Tandridge DC has identified weaknesses in the way information is provided and managed by its repairs contractors, and there is no repairs policy in place. We found this to be a serious failing.
Taking into account the significance of the issues across a number of health and safety areas, the lack of assurance that Tandridge DC has appropriate mitigations in place to ensure the safety of tenants, gaps in the information on the condition of homes and issues with the quality and accuracy of the information regarding repairs and maintenance service, we have concluded there are very serious failings in Tandridge DC delivering the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard, and that it must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants. Tandridge DC has not yet provided evidence to assure us of its ability to put these matters right. We will work with Tandridge DC 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 very serious failings in Tandridge DC delivering some of the required outcomes in this area. We were provided with assurance that Tandridge DC treats its tenants and prospective tenants with fairness and respect, but Tandridge DC does not have an accurate understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants and could not evidence that its landlord services are accessible. There are limited meaningful opportunities for tenants to become involved in scrutinising landlord services, and we do not have assurance that Tandridge DC takes tenants’ views into account in its decision making about how landlord services are delivered. We consider all of these issues to be serious failings. In regard to complaints handling, the council cannot evidence that all complaints made by tenants are being dealt with fairly, effectively, and promptly, which we consider to be a very serious failing.
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 serious failings in Tandridge DC meeting these outcomes as it was unable to provide sufficient evidence that it was working to deter and tackle hate incidents in its neighbourhoods.
The Neighbourhood and Community Standard also requires landlords to work co-operatively with tenants, other landlords and relevant organisations to take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of internal and external shared spaces. We saw that estate cleaning performance is falling below expected standards and there is insufficient evidence that issues raised are actioned.
In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we found reasonable assurance that Tandridge 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. However, we have identified weaknesses in relation to its tenancy audit programme and in the monitoring of the outcomes from these audits.
Tandridge DC has been engaging constructively with us. It needs to develop a better understanding of the issues it must address and take action to rectify the failings identified. We expect it to urgently develop a comprehensive improvement plan that demonstrates an understanding of the scale and breadth of the issues, that will drive fundamental change across all of the areas identified, and to share that with tenants. Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that Tandridge DC is making sufficient progress, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement plan.
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 Tandridge DC seeks to resolve these issues.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
Tandridge DC is located in East Surrey and owns around 2,600 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. 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.