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July 2025 Regulatory Judgement

Here’s an overview of a Regulatory Judgement we received in July, along with links to the judgement itself and our Annual Report, which also highlights it.

Read the Regulator's full judgement Read the Housing Annual Report 2024-25

The Regulator of Social Housing sets out the regulatory standards that landlords must meet under the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. The regulator is there to make sure that the social housing sector is a viable, efficient and well-governed, and that it is able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants. 

The Social Housing (Regulations) Act 2023, which came into force on 1 April 2024, introduced four new consumer standards that apply to all registered providers of social housing, including local authorities. These standards place an emphasis on decent homes, tenant safety, tenant engagement and transparency, and place a duty on landlords to highlight any areas of non-compliance to the Regulator.  

Under the new standards, landlords need to:  

  • Ensure tenants are safe in their homes  
  • Listen to tenants’ complaints and respond promptly to put things right 
  • Be accountable to tenants and treat them with fairness and respect 
  • Know more about the condition of every home and the needs of the people who live in them  
  • Collect and use data effectively across a range of areas, including repairs  

Following an expansion of its powers, from 1 April 2024, the regulator began carrying out regulatory inspections of Local Authority social landlords.  

The inspection was part of the new regulatory framework introduced under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. It assesses how well councils meet the four new consumer standards: 

  • Safety & Quality 
  • Transparency, Influence & Accountability 
  • Neighbourhood & Community 
  • Tenancy 

Read more about the Consumer Standards.  

The Regulator of Social Housing publishes regulatory judgements to show how well a landlord is delivering its services compared to an agreed set of consumer standards. They provide a consumer grading from C1 to C4.  

  • C1: Landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.  
  • C2: There are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.  
  • C3: There are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.  
  • C4: 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.  

 We have been given a C3. 

As a comparator, at June 2025, 43 councils with social housing had been inspected and the gradings given were: 

  • C1 - 3 councils 
  • C2 - 13 councils  
  • C3 - 25 councils  
  • C4 - 2 councils 

The Regulator identified areas where the council needs to improve, and in particular: 

  • Improving the large number of overdue repairs (circa 3000) 
  • Responding to nearly 3000 overdue remedial actions from Fire Risk Assessments. 
  • Providing opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise housing services. 
  • Improving how we share performance and service information. 

However, the Regulator also acknowledged the council’s commitment to improvement and the steps already planned and taken. 

We have written to all our properties via our Annual Report to explain the judgement, and provide reassurance and guidance. We are very proud to be a social landlord. and we are confident in the safety and quality of our homes.  

We have developed a Housing Improvement Plan to respond to the findings and will have in place robust processes to monitor progress. This will include the setting up of a Housing Improvement Board and associated delivery groups and we will be looking for tenants to be part of the board.  We will also be holding regular meetings with the Housing Regulator to review and report on the Plan.  

We are working to ensure that we continuously improve, but we ask tenants to get in touch with us if have any concerns as we are here to help. You can contact us here. 

  • Improvement Plans: A detailed Housing Improvement Plan has been developed and is being implemented. A copy can be found here: Housing Regulator: Tenant Satisfaction Measures 2024/25  
  • Investment: Significant funding is being allocated to upgrade homes 
  • Governance: New Boards and Delivery Groups are being established to oversee progress and ensure accountability. 
  • Tenant Engagement: An ‘Engagement Call to Action’ is being promoted to tenants and leaseholders to support us by getting involved in shaping your housing services.  More details can be found here - www.redditchbc.gov.uk/tenant-engagement  

  • Funding has been tripled for precautionary fire safety work 
  • Additional resources have been put in place to respond to the back log of repairs.  In addition, a back-office admin clean-up has closed 1,200 (40%) of the 3,000 outstanding jobs. 
  • Reduced the number of outstanding water safety actions from 150 down to 7. 
  • Produced and posted an Annual Report to every tenant to provide information on our housing performance 
  • Quarterly Housing Performance reports on now presented to Executive Committee  
  • A Call to action to improve tenant engagement has started, see www.redditchbc.gov.uk/tenant-engagement 
  • Reporting ASB has been made easier with an online form.  Details can be found here:  www.redditchbc.gov.uk/asb  

No. There are no changes to tenancy agreements or rent levels as a result of the inspection. 

Here is the full regulatory judgement.

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