Broxtowe Borough Council given ‘failing’ C3 consumer grading

The Regulator of Social Housing has given Broxtowe Borough Council a C3 grading after an inspection found 3,000 overdue fire remedial actions.

In its inspection of the Nottinghamshire landlord, the regulator (RSH) also identified a lack of accurate and up-to-date information on tenants’ homes and a lack of understanding of the diverse needs of all its tenants.

It said improvements were also needed in the landlord’s engagement with tenants.

The RSH said the borough council had been “engaging constructively” and had “demonstrated an understanding of the issues and a willingness to resolve them”. 

Meanwhile, Manchester City Council was given a C2 grading, with the regulator finding that improvement was needed.

The RSH said the city was “implementing plans to address the weaknesses identified, including low tenant satisfaction with repairs and anti-social behaviour”.

It added: “Though it has achieved a good understanding of the condition of its homes and is dealing effectively with health and safety issues, there are some gaps in the information it holds for tenants.”

The outcomes of annual stability checks for nine other landlords were also published, with Livin regraded from V2 to V1 and Vico regraded from V1 to V2. Together Housing was upgraded from C2 to C1.

The rest retained their previous governance and viability gradings. 

“Our programme of inspections, which hits the halfway point of its four-year cycle in April, is continuing to identify gaps in landlords’ information on homes and tenants,” said Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at RSH.

“Landlords can improve services for tenants by taking a proactive approach to tackling these gaps. Without accurate, up-to-date information, it is impossible to make the right decisions or demonstrate that homes are safe, warm and decent.”