This week, Newark and Sherwood District Council has been awarded a C2 consumer grading by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) following a recent programmed inspection with included a detailed review of documents and on-site interviews with senior officers, involved tenants, staff and councillors.
While the judgement recognises that improvements are needed in some areas, the Regulator found the Council is meeting legal health and safety requirements for tenants’ homes and communal areas, is investing in its homes, has a positive and respectful culture towards tenants and is actively addressing its weaknesses.
The RSH issues gradings from C1, where consumer standards are fully met, to C4, where there are very serious failings.
Areas of improvement highlighted by the RSH were the Council’s limited understanding of the condition of all its homes, the need to strengthen oversight of repairs and damp and mould cases, to revisit and enhance service standards so tenants know what to expect and can hold the Council to account and through the governance framework, evidence the delivery of a programme for tenant scrutiny of services.
The Regulator recognised several areas of good practice across the Council’s housing services. These included accessible senior leadership, a flexible approach to supporting vulnerable tenants, and a wide range of opportunities for tenants to influence services through groups such as the Tenant Engagement Board, Housing Advisory Board, Tenant Engagement Champions and Community Link Groups.
The judgement also found that complaints are being addressed fairly, effectively and promptly, with evidence that the Council learns from tenant feedback. It also confirmed that the Council is meeting expectations around anti-social behaviour and partnership working, and noted that Newark and Sherwood District Council had demonstrated good self-awareness of areas for improvement during the inspection, with progress already being made to address the areas identified.
Councillor Lee Brazier, Portfolio Holder for Housing at Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “This C2 judgement from the RSH shows that we are doing many things well in the delivery of services for our tenants, but there is more to do.”
“In recent years, we have introduced a number of improvements. These include a stronger focus on responding to tenant complaints, creating a damp and mould team ahead of the introduction of Awaab’s Law, reshaping our repairs service and launching a new online self-service repairs platform."
“We have also worked with tenant engagement experts Tpas to develop measures to increase tenant involvement, and introduced new ways to communicate with tenants, including an e-newsletter and Facebook page.”
“While this is positive, we remain focused on improving our service further to meet all the requirements of the consumer standards. We will soon be carrying out a tenant census to help us better understand our tenants, we have just launched a Tenant Influence and Assurance Board, which gives tenants a strong voice in the decisions we make and how we are performing and completing our full stock condition programme.”
"We look forward to continued dialogue with the RSH as we strive to make our housing services better for our tenants.”
Following this judgement, the Council is working with the Regulator to address the issues identified.
