Nottingham City Council’s social housing service has had its consumer grading upgraded by the Regulator of Social Housing after improvements were made to the way it manages council homes, repairs and tenant engagement.
The regulator has moved the council from a C3 grade to a C2 grade following responsive engagement completed in June 2026.
The previous C3 judgement was issued in January 2025 after an inspection found serious failings in the council’s delivery of consumer standards. The regulator said at the time that improvements were needed across areas including the condition of homes, repairs, disrepair cases, tenant engagement and the sharing of performance information.
Nottingham City Council owns around 24,000 social homes. Between 2005 and 2023, those homes were managed by Nottingham City Homes, an arm’s-length management organisation. In March 2023, the ALMO was closed and management of the homes was transferred back to the council.
The latest judgement says the council has improved its understanding of the condition of its housing stock and strengthened its oversight and delivery of repairs and maintenance services, including the management of disrepair cases.
The regulator said the council had also improved the delivery and monitoring of outcomes from tenant engagement, tenant insight and scrutiny activity.
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However, the C2 grade means weaknesses remain and further improvement is still needed, particularly in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard.
During the 2025 inspection, the regulator found a serious failing in the council’s understanding of the condition of its homes at individual property level. At that point, almost 40 per cent of the council’s homes had not been surveyed for more than 10 years.
Since then, the council has commissioned condition surveys and introduced a five-year rolling programme. The regulator said it now had assurance that the council had a more comprehensive understanding of the condition of its homes, helping it identify the investment needed to ensure tenants live in good-quality, well-maintained and safe homes.
The judgement says Nottingham City Council has completed surveys of 85 per cent of its homes within the past five years. It also provided evidence of attempts to book and carry out surveys at a further 13 per cent of homes where access could not be gained.
The council reported that 0.3 per cent of its homes do not currently meet the Decent Homes Standard and said it has plans in place to bring those homes up to standard.
The regulator said it would continue to engage with the council in this area to seek assurance that improvements lead to better outcomes for tenants.
The judgement also refers to improvements in health and safety processes. The 2025 inspection found the council was meeting its legal requirements relating to tenant health and safety in homes and communal areas, but identified weaknesses in its approach to capped gas supplies where access could not be gained for checks, and in monitoring carbon monoxide and smoke detection.
The regulator said it had since seen evidence that both areas had been addressed and that the council had adopted a more person-centred approach to enforcement cases arising from landlord health and safety checks.
Repairs and maintenance were a major concern in the previous inspection. The regulator said in 2025 that the council could not provide assurance it was delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs service. Issues included system failures that affected the accurate reporting of repair times, poor management of disrepair cases, almost 1,000 live disrepair cases, and a lack of confidence in the quality and completeness of information held.
The latest judgement says the council has implemented an upgraded system for managing repairs and maintenance and now has assurance over the accuracy of its information.
The council has also reorganised its repairs service delivery model to respond more dynamically to demand. The regulator said performance against target timescales and satisfaction with repair services showed an improving position.
It also said improvements had been made in the management of disrepair claims, with reduced case volumes, more active management of live cases and evidence of learning from disrepair to prevent recurrence.
The regulator said it would continue to engage with the council to ensure progress continues and leads to further improvements for tenants.
The judgement also covers housing adaptations. The 2025 inspection found limited assurance that the council was helping tenants who needed adaptations to access appropriate services. At that time, the council did not have an adaptations policy and there were weaknesses in how it worked with other council departments to deliver the service.
The regulator said the council had since provided evidence of improved outcomes, including faster delivery times and improved tenant satisfaction with adaptation works. The council is still working with other departments to finalise roles and responsibilities for delivering adaptations to tenants.
On anti-social behaviour and hate incidents, the regulator said the 2025 inspection had found the council dealt effectively with cases in line with policies and procedures, and in partnership with relevant organisations.
The judgement also says the council was offering tenancies or occupation terms compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of households, the sustainability of communities and the efficient use of housing stock.
Tenant engagement was another area where the regulator previously identified weaknesses. The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account, allow tenants to scrutinise and influence landlord services, and communicate how views have been considered.
The regulator said a respectful approach to tenants was observed during the 2025 inspection, but surveys and other evidence showed this was not the experience of every tenant.
The latest judgement says the council has provided evidence of improved outcomes, including direct tenant feedback and perception survey responses. It said the council now routinely contacts tenants who feel they have not been treated with fairness and respect to understand their experiences in more detail, and has changed operational processes where tenants consistently expressed dissatisfaction.
During the 2025 inspection, the council could not provide evidence that tenant engagement was influencing how services were delivered. Although it had developed an improvement plan and established a new housing assurance board, improved outcomes were not evident at that stage.
The regulator said the council had since formalised evaluation methods across tenant insight and engagement activity, allowing outcomes to be tracked and evidenced. It said that issue had now been addressed.
The judgement also says the council has developed a process for sharing performance information with tenants at regular intervals and created ways for tenants to respond to that information.
The regulator said the council had demonstrated that it understood the diverse needs of its tenants and kept that information up to date. It said the council had now provided evidence of how it uses tenant demographic data to check accessibility and fairness, and of action taken where issues were identified.
The regulator said Nottingham City Council had engaged constructively and that it would continue to monitor progress as remaining weaknesses are addressed.