The Regulator of Social Housing has scored Arun District Council a C4 grade, with the council found to have serious failings in its consumer standards.
During an inspection of the council, the RSH found that Arun had around 2,500 open and overdue repairs cases, as well as close to 1,000 overdue fire risk assessment remedial actions. Over half of the council’s homes do not have smoke detectors fitted and that it does not expect to reach compliance in this area until May 2027.
The RSH also found that there was a lack of meaningful opportunities for tenants to scrutinise performance and influence Arun’s services, as well as a lack of evidence that the council is taking appropriate action in response to anti-social behaviour cases and hate incidents.
Arun District Council has acknowledged that it needs to address the issues and is taking action to rectify the serious failings highlighted by the RSH. The council has been engaging constructively with the regulator and will now develop a comprehensive plan to drive change across the areas identified.
The RSH has also given the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) a C3 grade for consumer standards. It found that the RBKC needed to improve its understanding of tenants’ homes at an individual level and undertake the required work to ensure its homes meet the Decent Homes standard. The RSH found that RBKC was meeting the RSH’s standards in relation to health and safety compliance, its repairs process and the way it engages with tenants.
The RSH also downgraded L&Q and Saxon Weald to G2, meaning both landlords still meet the governance requirements overall but need to improve in some aspects to support continued compliance.
Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at RSH, said: “Social landlords need to have a strong understanding of their tenants’ homes and ensure that all homes are of a decent standard. Equally, boards must maintain oversight and robust financial governance in order to provide good quality homes and services to tenants.”
“We will continue to keep social landlords under close scrutiny through our inspection programme and wider regulatory engagement. We continue to reinforce the importance of self-referrals by landlords, which enables issues to be resolved more quickly.”
