Decision

Woking Borough Council (43UM): Regulatory Judgement - 28 October 2026

Updated 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 Woking Borough Council (Woking 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 Woking BC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in the Neighbourhood and Community Standard and the Tenancy Standard. We also identified weaknesses in Woking BC delivering some of the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for Woking BC.

How we reached our judgement

Following a self-referral from Woking BC, we published a Regulatory Notice for Woking BC in December 2023 due to a breach of the Home Standard (the Home Standard has now been replaced by the current consumer standards), as it did not have an effective system in place to allow it to meet its responsibilities for statutory health and safety compliance across a range of areas. Since then, we have been engaging with Woking BC as it addressed the failings identified.

We carried out an inspection of Woking BC 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.

During the inspection we observed a Communities and Housing Scrutiny Committee, and meetings of the Housing Improvement Board and the Resident and Landlord Partnership Panel. We met with involved tenants, Woking BC’s lead commissioner, officers and councillors, including the leader of the council and the cabinet member for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Woking 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 Woking 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 have an accurate, up-to-date and evidenced understanding of the condition of its homes at an individual property level and to ensure each home meets the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. We found that Woking BC has a good understanding of the condition of its homes, with most having been surveyed in the last five years. However, at the time of the inspection around 12% of homes did not meet the Decent Homes Standard. To address this weakness Woking BC is taking action to address non decency in its homes and is developing its asset management plan. We will continue to engage with Woking BC to monitor its progress.

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 to ensure that all actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales. We have assurance that Woking BC is largely meeting its obligations relating to health and safety compliance, having improved its position following publication of the Regulatory Notice in December 2023. However, we identified some weaknesses relating to completion of overdue fire, water and asbestos remedial actions. Woking BC has clear plans to complete these actions at pace, and we will continue to engage with Woking BC to ensure this weakness is addressed.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which it is responsible. During the inspection we identified some weaknesses in this area. Woking BC is meeting its targets for routine, urgent and emergency repairs, and there are very few overdue repairs, disrepair or damp and mould cases. However, there are delays in completing repairs to empty homes and there is limited reporting around hazards and communal repairs. Woking BC also needs to improve disrepair reporting and improve communication with tenants about how to report disrepair. Woking BC has improvement plans in place to address these weaknesses, and we will continue to engage as it embeds these changes.

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. During the inspection, we saw evidence of partnership working, but found serious failings in how Woking BC manages, reports and monitors anti-social behaviour and hate incidents. Woking BC does not effectively triage, or risk assess reports of anti-social behaviour or hate incidents, ensure that agreed communication plans are maintained or that victims are appropriately supported. Woking BC has recognised that significant improvements are needed to address this serious failing and has recently included this in its Housing Improvement Plan to ensure improvements are delivered.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, landlords must offer tenancies that meet all applicable legal requirements and are compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its homes. We found serious failings in Woking BC meeting these outcomes. Woking BC has limited routine oversight, monitoring or reporting arrangements in place for its tenancies. As a result, it could not provide assurance that tenancy decisions are being made in line with its own Tenancy Policy, Housing Allocation Policy or the outcomes of the Tenancy Standard. We also found that tenants on both introductory and fixed term tenancies receive limited information about the expiry of their tenancy, and there is limited reporting on the support offered to tenants during their tenancies. Woking BC has updated its Housing Improvement Plan to implement and monitor the changes required to ensure that the outcomes of the Tenancy Standard are delivered.

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. Throughout the inspection, Woking BC demonstrated that it treats its tenants with fairness and respect, evidenced by a positive and respectful staff culture. We also saw evidence that Woking BC understands some of the diverse needs of its tenants. However, we found that further work is needed to update tenant information and address gaps in the information it holds, and to ensure that it uses this information to help deliver fair and equitable services to tenants. Woking BC has plans in place to address these weaknesses, and we will monitor its progress in this area.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible information so that tenants can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord and hold their landlord to account. It also requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account when making decisions about the delivery of landlord services. Woking BC provided assurance that it is meeting the outcomes in relation to tenant engagement, but there are weaknesses that it needs to address to fully meet all the requirements of the standard.

Woking BC offers a wide range of meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence policy and service delivery including through the Resident and Landlord Partnership Panel. Woking BC is further developing its approach to enable more in-depth tenant scrutiny. However, there is a weakness in the information provided to tenants at the start of their tenancy, as some information is limited or out of date. Prior to the inspection, Woking BC had started to review its tenancy sign-up packs to address this weakness. Woking BC shares performance with engaged tenants but this was limited for the wider tenant population. Woking BC has recently made changes to ensure that all tenants have access to performance information.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also states that landlords must ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. Through the inspection, we saw evidence that Woking BC learns from complaints and has measures in place to monitor its performance. We saw weaknesses in Woking BC responding to Stage 1 complaints in a timely manner and ensuring that actions from complaints were completed. Woking BC has implemented changes that have led to recent improvements in performance, but we will continue to monitor this to ensure these changes are embedded.  

Woking BC has engaged constructively with us throughout the inspection process, has demonstrated that it understands the issues it needs to address, and is taking action towards rectifying the weaknesses identified. We will continue to work with Woking BC to seek assurance that it is addressing all of the issues identified during the inspection.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Woking BC is a district level council in Surrey. It owns and manages around 3,000 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. 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