Council-commissioned report urges it to focus on data and reporting
Newham Council still has “some way to go” to fix its housing service after its C4 grading in October 2024, an independent investigation has concluded.
Law firm Capsticks was commissioned by the council to conduct a review of its housing function after it became the first local authority to be handed the lowest consumer grade by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).
Capsticks’ investigation into the service’s governance, reporting and oversight, recently presented to Newham’s cabinet, recommended that it focus on improving its data and reporting as an initial priority.
The regulator’s inspection in 2024 found the local authority had failed to meet legal fire and electrical safety requirements, had a lack of accurate information on stock quality and thousands of repairs not completed on time.
At least 20% of its homes did not meet the Decent Homes Standard and the regulator said there were “very limited meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise its strategies, policies and services”.
The Capsticks investigation looked back over a period of two years between January 2023 and February 2025.
Findings were split across three themes: performance and metrics; execution and process; structure and governance.
With regards to the first, Capsticks told Newham to separate hate crime figures from anti-social behaviour cases to enable a “properly tailored approach”, and to ensure data remains up to date, accurate and reliable by implementing “strong and secure systems”.
On execution and process, Capsticks said the council needed to consider the achievability of targets at the point they are set and consider whether more resources are needed. It also urged regular progress reviews through repeat reporting in meetings.
In the final area, the council was told to implement a structure giving residents meaningful opportunities to influence decision-making, and to institute clear terms of reference for each group, committee and board, alongside clear lines of reporting upwards to provide a streamlined decision process.
The report outlined roles and responsibilities, data, and reporting as initial priorities to be addressed, but said this was “not intended to serve as a fixed plan”.
“Our view is that the initial focus for LB Newham should be on data and reporting”, it said.
“This will help LB Newham to have a clear position of its housing function and enable the improvement plan, which is being worked on internally, to be geared in the right areas to improve compliance with the regular standards.”
It said that, from discussions with council staff, it was clear that there was “already some awareness” of the issues discussed in the report.
It also noted that Newham was “already undergoing a period of improvement and had taken steps to improve its housing function” at the time of the regulator’s inspection.
However, it said that the council still had “some way to go to ensure the effective performance of its housing function and compliance with the consumer standards”.
In a document commenting on the investigation, the council noted that “significant progress” had been made on the areas mentioned in the report since the time of the inspection.
“Newham is now working alongside Savills to implement further changes which will address all of the recommendations in the Capsticks report and ultimately be fully reflected in the new Target Operating Model for Housing Services,” it said.
The council has implemented refreshed governance arrangements recommended by the Local Government Association and its interim legal director of legal and governance recently established an officer governance group to oversee Newham’s corporate and ethical governance frameworks.
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