Decision

Bristol City Council (00HB) - Regulatory Judgement: 9 July 2024

Published 9 July 2024

Applies to England

Our Judgement 

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C3: Our judgement is that there are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed	First grading	June 2024

Reason for publication 

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Bristol City Council (Bristol CC) to confirm a consumer grading of C3.  

This is a result of our responsive engagement with Bristol CC about the Safety and Quality Standard. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.  

Summary of the decision 

Our judgement is that there are serious failings in how Bristol CC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for Bristol CC.  

How we reached our judgement 

We began our responsive engagement with Bristol CC following its submission to our fire remediation survey in December 2023, as we considered the response indicated potentially material issues in relation to Bristol CC’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards.  

Our initial engagement focussed on fire safety, but we also requested that Bristol CC provide us with its landlord health and safety compliance data. Bristol CC subsequently made a self-referral to us in April 2024 to report the findings of an external review. In February 2024, the external review identified issues within Bristol CC’s housing service relating to landlord health and safety compliance and data management and the review was finalised in June 2024.  

Our responsive engagement with Bristol CC included reviewing documents and data provided by Bristol CC, with follow up meetings and discussions with Bristol CC. This regulatory judgement is based on a review of all relevant information provided by Bristol CC during our responsive engagement, including its self-referral. In making our decision, we have considered how well it is delivering against outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard. 

Summary of findings   

Consumer – C3 – June 2024 

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas, and that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales. 

In respect of electrical safety, Bristol CC reported to us that for over 50% of its domestic properties it was unable to evidence a current electrical safety certificate and was unable to confirm the level of risk from the outstanding electrical remedial actions. Bristol CC has stated that it is undertaking work to establish the risk profile of outstanding actions. 

In relation to smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, Bristol CC has not been able to evidence that it is meeting the requirements of the relevant regulations for more than 85% of its homes. 

For asbestos safety, Bristol CC reported that it does not have valid communal asbestos surveys for all its blocks. Bristol CC advised us that it does not operate a consistent reinspection process for its communal areas. 

In respect of fire safety, Bristol CC has a statutory duty to regularly assess, and take precautions to prevent the risk of fire. Bristol has reported to us that is has around 3,000 fire remedial actions outstanding and has reported low confidence in its data management relating to fire safety. Bristol CC has, to date, only provided limited information on its mitigation of fire safety risks for the period while remedial actions and any outstanding works are completed. 

Alongside the requirements in relation to health and safety, the Safety and Quality Standard also requires Bristol CC to have an accurate and up to date understanding of the condition of its homes. Bristol CC has informed us that it has low confidence in the accuracy of its reported performance, as it does not have up to date survey data on the majority of its homes. Over 80% of its surveys were conducted more than five years ago. Given the limited availability of up to date stock condition survey data and the lack of a systematic approach to stock condition, we do not have assurance that Bristol has a sufficient understanding of its homes to deliver the outcomes in the Safety and Quality Standard. 

Bristol CC also reported to us that it has over 1,900 open damp and mould cases with more than 200 of those over 12 months overdue. Bristol CC has low confidence in its reporting of damp and mould, which means it does not have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of its homes. Bristol CC has informed us that it is undertaking a review of its data and intends to prioritise an assessment of damp and mould reports. 

Bristol CC has stated that it has more than 16,000 outstanding repairs, with around half of these overdue by more than 12 months, and it is not completing repairs in a timely manner. Further work needs to be undertaken by Bristol CC for it to confirm that its data on outstanding repairs is accurate. 

Bristol CC is developing a detailed improvement plan to address these failings, including implementing a new suite of compliance reporting. Bristol CC has informed us that a robust governance framework has been put in place to deliver this improvement plan, including senior level oversight of delivery, through a new programme board.  

Taking into account the breadth and significance of the issues across a number of health and safety areas, the lack of accurate data on stock quality, and the failings in Bristol CC’s repairs and maintenance service, we have concluded that there are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard and significant improvement is needed. 

Bristol CC is engaging constructively with us on an ongoing basis, including to demonstrate that it is taking reasonable steps to identify and mitigate risks to tenants as it continues to address the issues that led to this situation. We expect the landlord to develop a plan that will drive significant change and to share that with tenants. Our engagement with the landlord will be intensive and we will seek evidence that gives us the assurance that sufficient change and progress is being made, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement programme. Our priority will be that risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as Bristol CC seeks to resolve these issues.  

Background to the judgement 

About the landlord 

Bristol CC owns around 26,700 social housing properties, including 62 high rise buildings.  

Our role and regulatory approach 

We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.  

We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations).  

We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment.  

We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page. 

We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. In-Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our new inspections programme from 1 April 2024. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes. 

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. 

For more information about our approach to regulation, please see Regulating the standards. 

Further information

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords