Islington Council handed C3 consumer grade after regulator finds failings

Islington Council has been handed a C3 consumer grade after the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) found “serious failings” during an inspection.

The judgement means the London local authority, which is responsible for 25,700 homes, must make “significant improvement”.

RSH found the council does not have an accurate understanding of tenants’ homes – with most surveys carried out over 10 years ago without a formal Housing Health and Safety Rating System assessment – and cannot provide assurance that they meet the Decent Homes Standard.

The council also gave only limited assurance on the accuracy of health and safety compliance data and had more than 1,000 overdue lift remedial actions.

RSH said: “The London Borough of Islington has been engaging constructively with us. It understands the issues it needs to address and is taking action to rectify the failures and weaknesses identified. We are engaging with Islington as it continues to address the issues set out in this judgement.”

Islington Council, which will remain a Labour-led authority following last week’s local elections, has been approached for comment.

In other judgements today, Salford City Council and Milton Keynes City Council received C2 grades, meaning there are some weaknesses and improvements are needed.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council were both handed the top ‘C1’ grades.

Housing associations Housing 21 and Golden Lane Housing Limited received the highest grades for governance, viability and consumer performance..

Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at RSH, said: “All social landlords should aim for a C1 grade as the minimum standard. To do this they need to understand the condition of tenants’ homes and act on this to find and fix problems, and tackle the root cause. They also need to listen to tenants, treat them with fairness and respect, and use feedback to shape services.

“When we find weaknesses or serious failures through our inspections or referrals, we work with landlords to make sure they improve for the long term.”

RSH also today placed GreenSquareAccord on its gradings under review list in order to investigate potential “serious failings” which may indicate a breach of governance and viability standard by the Birmingham-based provider.