Agenda item

This report will follow in a supplementary pack after it has been published for the meeting of Executive Committee (due for publication on Friday 22 August).

The Assistant Director of Environmental and Housing Property Services presented a report on the subject of the Inspection Report by the Social Housing Regulator and the Housing Improvement Plan. Members were informed that the Council received a C3 Regulatory Judgment in relation to its social housing, indicating serious failings in delivering housing services, particularly in repairs and maintenance, fire safety, tenant engagement, and data management. It was noted that the regulatory judgment was graded from C1 to C4 with C1 being the highest grade and C4 representing most severe level of non-compliance. 56 per cent of local authorities (with social housing stock) inspected had received C3 gradings.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) identified key concerns around approximately 3,000 overdue repairs, 3,000 outstanding fire safety actions, limited stock condition surveys, and insufficient tenant involvement mechanisms. The RSH acknowledged the Council’s commitment to improvement, and highlighted positive practices in electrical safety, anti-social behaviour management, and the establishment of a Damp and Mould team.

The Council had developed a Housing Improvement Plan with the interim plan approved by the Executive Committee in June 2025. The Plan had been updated following the announcement of the inspection result on 30 July 2025. The Plan contained a set of targeted actions which included the appointment of a Senior Tenant Engagement and Participation Officer, establishment of tenant forums and training programmes, implementation of new systems for repairs and safety compliance, development of a five-year rolling programme for stock condition surveys, and an enhanced governance through a multi-tiered oversight structure.

The Assistant Director of Environmental and Housing Property Services highlighted areas of progress that had already been made within the housing service. It was noted that many of these improvement actions had been in progress for some time prior to the inspection and the inspection result. The areas of progress included:

1.     Publication of annual report to council tenants at the end of July 2025. The annual reports would now be produced every year.

2.     Work on initiatives for tenant engagement.

3.     A 50 per cent reduction in overdue repairs with this outcome prompted by a root and branch analysis undertaken in June and July 2025.

4.     A 94 per cent reduction in outstanding water safety inspections.

5.     Mobilisation of a caretaker service for communal areas within communal blocks etc.

6.     Recruitment of a Damp and Mould team to deal specifically with tenants experiencing issues in this area.

7.     Improvement in complaint handling with Q1 2025-26 recording progress over the same quarter in 2024-25, as the Council responded to a larger proportion of complaints within agreed timescales. (For Stage 1 complaints 93 per cent responded to within timescales, up from 62 per cent at Q1 2024-25, for stage 2 100 per cent within timescales up from 80 per cent at Q1 2024-25).

8.     Commencement of a fire door / hazard inspection programme within communal blocks.

Members subsequently discussed the report in detail and in doing so commented on the following areas:

·       Concern among Members that some changes were only prompted or accelerated by the inspection, for example in relation to Council’s engagement and communication with tenants. A Member reported that for many Members large amount of casework continued to be from tenants in relation to housing matters. It was further highlighted that this high casework levels tended to occur where officers did not communicate effectively with tenants. this needed to continue to be addressed moving forward. Officers reported that the report proposed the employment of a Senior Tenant Engagement and Participation Officer in addition to development of participation opportunities for Council Housing Tenants to address these issues.

·       The improvements that had taken place since the Service Review and restructuring of the Housing Property Services including the Capital Team in 2019. It was highlighted that in 2019 the Service was at a point of full failure within no performance measures, lack of data on voids, a lack of gas safety records, lack of oversight in respect of contractors and many other issues. Since the restructure and change of leadership and management, there had been an overhaul in operations with improvements made as set out within the officer presentation.

·       The Council’s commitment to keep progressing was highlighted with the increased capital investment in its housing stock as shown through the 5-year Housing Capital Programme and the long-term HRA 30-year Capital Investment Programme, agreed in February 2023.

·       The decrease in the number of stock condition surveys carried out over the last two years. It was noted that as improvements in other areas of the service were prioritised over the last few years, there had been a drop to the condition surveys. Members were assured that this was being actively addressed. It was noted that stock condition surveys were carried out to 20 per cent of the housing stock in the last five years but this figure would increase to 75 per cent if data for the last six years was taken into account in the inspection report.

·       Changes to modern data management systems. Officers explained that the Council had changed to Civica CX housing management system as part of the restructure, which had led to significant improvements in data management with performance data no also reported through PowerBI. Further improvements were being introduced and in respect of contractors inputting data and signing off completed jobs electronically, it was reported that Total Mobile application was in the testing stage. Once fully released this would enable contractors to sign off completed repairs electronically. Currently, however, repairs reports were undertaken on paper which increased likelihood of error in reporting fixed repairs.

·       The frequency with which Officers had previously reported on the Council’s performance in respect of the Housing Regulator’s tenant satisfaction measures. Members were informed that this had been identified as a gap in reporting procedures and there would be a quarterly report to Members on Housing Performance and quarterly updates on the Housing Improvement Plan going forward.

·       The need for cross-party housing improvement panel / working group to be set up to enable Members to scrutinise progress in carrying out the Housing Improvement Plan initiatives. The Officers responded that it was envisaged that task and finish groups would be set up by Overview and Scrutiny to look at specific housing issues as appropriate.

·       The need for a tenant advisory panel which would be a mechanism through which feedback could be provided directly to Portfolio Holder for Housing and senior officers. It was noted that tenant engagement was considered within the proposed governance structure including through tenant representation at the Housing Strategic Oversight Board (appendix 5 to the report).

·       Learning from peers post-inspection and in the process of delivering the Housing Improvement Plan. The Assistant Director of Environmental and Housing Property Services reported that the Council had had an active engagement with the Regulator with monthly meetings set to continue to promote oversight. In addition, the Council had held meetings with chief officers at Berneslai Homes, a social housing provider company controlled by Barnsley Council, which was the first local authority to have received the highest C1 grading for Housing Regulator’s Consumer Standards. Redditch Borough Council Officers were due to travel to Barnsley to observe their arrangements in October 2025.

·       The inclusion of the Housing Improvement Plan on the Council’s Corporate Risk Register. It was stated that whilst the Plan was not currently included in the risk register, in response to Members’ feedback Officers would check as an action how the Plan could be flagged up as a corporate risk.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing addressed the Committee and commented that following the restructure of the service both administrations had made improvements to the service but there remained a lot of work to resolve the problems highlighted within the inspection report. The Portfolio Holder explained that the main weakness in relation to Council’s performance lied in the data gaps in areas such as housing stock condition and tenant profile data. It was highlighted that the Council had improved its complaints handling among other things.  The Council’s Social Housing Annual Report provided to tenants also gave an honest and transparent reflection of Council’s performance at this point and actions that would be implemented.

The Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Performance, Engagement and Governance addressed the Committee and noted that one of the main issues highlighted by the Regulator was in the area governance and tenant engagement and to address this there were Governance Proposals within the Housing Improvement Plan to improve tenant representation and the communication between senior leadership and operational level. The Portfolio Holder highlighted that the changes required involved a lot of culture change across the organisation, including at operational level, and it was imperative that qualitative data was considered as well as quantitative to drive sustainable improvement.

The recommendations as set out in the report were endorsed by the Committee.

RECOMMENDED that

1)    The Regulatory Judgement published by the Regulator for Social Housing on 30^th July 2025 is noted, following an inspection of Redditch Borough Council’s Housing Service.

2)    The Housing Improvement Plan, which includes actions to address areas for improvement, confirmed as part of the inspection process, is approved.

3)    Delegation be given to the Assistant Director Environment & Housing Property and Assistant Director Community & Housing, following consultation with the Housing Portfolio Holder, to revise the Housing Improvement Plan following consultation with the Regulator for Social Housing as part of their Provider Improvement Process or in response to legislative changes.

4)    The proposed structure for governance of the Housing Improvement Plan be approved.

5)    A supplementary estimate of £60,000 is added to the Housing Revenue Account budget for 2025/26 funded from the Housing Revenue Account Balance Reserves to:

a.      appoint a Senior Tenant Engagement & Participation Officer (£25,000 – part year effect) and:

b.    establish, train and manage the development of participation opportunities for Council Housing tenants and leaseholders to influence changes in the delivery of Housing services (£35,000).

6)    £75,000 ongoing expenditure budget is added to the Housing Revenue Account base budget in 2026/27, funded from the Housing Revenue Account to:

a.     continue to employ a Senior Tenant Engagement & Participation Officer (£50,000 – full year effect) and:

b.    continue to train and manage the development of participation opportunities for Council Housing tenants and leaseholders to influence changes in the delivery of Housing services going forward (£25,000).