RSH publishes second round of judgements from inspections

The regulator also gave the north Liverpool housing association a C2 rating in its first consumer grading.

The RSH said Cobalt had given assurances that it had a “good understanding” of health and safety standards and evidence of systems to ensure tenant safety, but that there were “some weaknesses in the provision of the repairs and maintenance service”.

“Cobalt is taking steps to manage repairs performance within the existing structure with plans for new arrangements to make the improvement Cobalt’s board has committed to,” the judgement said. Its governance rating has been maintained at G1.

Claire Griffiths, Cobalt’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased to retain our G1 grading and meet the highest standards of governance, while the change to our viability grade reflects the significant investment we are making in our homes and communities.”

Ms Griffiths welcomed the positive feedback Cobalt had received in its consumer standard rating in areas such as its customer voice strategy.

“We are focused on working with tenants to improve our services, including our repairs, and will take on board all guidance from the regulator,” she said.

Weaknesses in consumer standards were found at four other registered providers, which were given C2 grades. These were Dacorum Borough Council, High Peak Borough Council, Melton Borough Council and North East Derbyshire District Council.

Three providers received the top grade of C1: Saffron Housing Trust, Salix Homes and North Devon Homes.

Sue Sutton, chief executive of Salix, said the landlord was “proud” of the grade, but not “complacent”.

“We’re committed to continuous improvement, and we will carry on learning from customer feedback,” Ms Sutton said.

The regulator raised concerns over properties at Dacorum, High Peak and North East Derbyshire that were failing to meet the Decent Homes Standard, but said all three were taking steps to address this.

The RSH found that more than 40% of Dacorum’s property records were not up to date, but added that work was underway to address the issue.

“Relatively low levels of satisfaction with repairs were identified and Dacorum Borough Council recognises that it needs to improve this area of service,” the judgement said.

High Peak was found to have limited processes in place for learning from complaints, as well as few “meaningful opportunities” for tenants to influence its policies and services.

In the case of Melton, the English regulator found there was “scope for it to develop a more reciprocal approach to engagement”, including improving the collection of data and its IT systems, to manage complaints more effectively.

At North East Derbyshire, the regulator found it did not have records on the condition of individual properties for all its homes, but that it had plans to address this.

“During the inspection we observed a respectful approach to tenants and saw evidence that North East Derbyshire District Council understands the diverse needs of tenants,” the RSH said.

The regulator began its first phase of inspections for all social landlords with more than 1,000 homes on 1 April this year.

Results from the initial round of inspections, covering two social landlords, were published in late July.

The first four social landlords that failed the new consumer standards were revealed in July, with a further four announced earlier this month.

The inspections will take place over at least a four-year cycle and are part of the RSH’s expanded remit brought in by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act.

If you are a landlord mentioned in this report and would like to add a comment, please contact jenny.messenger@insidehousing.co.uk