A senior official says he believes Nottingham’s council housing stock could get the best rating in the East Midlands as the authority looks to fix serious failings uncovered by a regulator.
In October 2024 the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), the independent body responsible for maintaining standards, inspected the council’s housing as part of work to check it was meeting new rules.
Its visit came as standards for all social housing providers were introduced from April the same year.
Following the inspection the council was given the second-worst rating by the regulator.
The regulator can award four consumer standards grades: C1, C2, C3 and C4.
C1, the highest grade, means the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, while C4, the lowest grade, is given when there are very serious failings which the landlord must make “fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered”.
Nottingham City Council’s housing services was given a C3.
Geoff Wharton, the outgoing consultant director for housing at the council, said all areas were “showing significant improvement” at a Homes, Economy and Infrastructure Scrutiny Committee on Monday (September 15).
“They are not seeing any areas they have got concerns about,” he said. “At this point in time I think the only reason they are probably staying with us is because they want to see the [new] IT system completely implemented.
“Once that is done I think they are fairly comfortable our trajectory is quite good. I think you could quite easily be C1, if not the best in the East Midlands. You’ve got it all to play for.
“You’ve got a good tenant base, a good officer base, a fairly tight geographical area, we’ve got the right contractors, the right investment, the right IT systems coming online, so I think it is just about sticking with the plan.”
The regulator’s inspection report said it had found “serious failings in delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed”.
The report from the RSH said it had “limited assurance” over stock quality and decency, and said the lack of home condition surveys in the last 10 years was a “serious failing”.
“Nottingham City Council is unable to accurately report average repair times due to system failures and is using a manual process to cleanse its repairs data,” its report said.
In response the authority has drawn-up a a post-inspection improvement plan.
Cllr Jay Hayes (Lab), executive member for housing and planning, said outstanding disrepair cases had been brought down from 1,000 to 485.
The authority is also conducting a full stock condition survey of all of its council homes.
To date the total number of properties surveyed stands at 13,607 out of 24,549 properties.
Around 213 property owners have refused access, which the council’s housing services say “remains the main issue”.
The deadline to complete all surveys is March 2026, and the council says it is entering a “critical period” to ensure all homes are checked.
In the next 10 years the council will need to spend £97m on roofing, followed £67m on heating.
It expects it will need to invest £958m in housing over the next three decades, down from an expected £1.1bn.
“I’ve been meeting the regulator every month,” Cllr Hayes said.
“Overall they are happy with progress being made and looking at potentially reducing the intervention.”
The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 also strengthened the role and rights of tenants regarding their influence over the services provided by their landlord.
The authority says an “extremely strong tenant influence vehicle” is now in place – the Housing Assurance Board (HAB) – which is made up of residents and leaseholders.
The arms-length management organisation Nottingham City Homes (NCH) is now directly managed by the council.
It was wound up in April 2023 after it emerged millions of pounds in rent payers’ money from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was unlawfully diverted to the council general fund.
