Decision

Central Bedfordshire Council (00KC) - Regulatory Judgement: 26 February 2025

Published 26 February 2025

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	February 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Central Bedfordshire Council following an inspection completed in February 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C3. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection, we have concluded that there are serious failings in Central Bedfordshire Council delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard and Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for Central Bedfordshire Council. 

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Central Bedfordshire Council to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. During the inspection we considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection we observed Central Bedfordshire Council’s Social Care, Health and Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee. We met with tenants, officers, the leader of the council, and the councillor who is the portfolio holder for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Central Bedfordshire Council.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information looked at during the inspection as well as analysis of information received through routine regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C3 – February 2025

We found serious failings in how Central Bedfordshire Council is delivering the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard and that significant improvement is needed.

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 ensure that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales.

Before the inspection, Central Bedfordshire Council made a self-referral and told us that it did not have assurance that the information underpinning its reported compliance with health and safety requirements was reliable. This was identified following an external review of its health and safety management and performance. Central Bedfordshire Council has subsequently completed an asset data validation exercise and has commissioned an additional external review of its asset data. It has also procured a new housing management system to manage all tenancy and asset information. We will continue to engage with Central Bedfordshire Council as it makes improvements to the quality of its information in this area.

We also identified a lack of oversight over the completion, tracking and reporting of safety remedial actions. At the time of the inspection there were more than 300 outstanding fire safety actions arising from fire risk assessments that were not tracked by age or prioritized by urgency, and there was a lack of oversight and reporting about when they were due to be completed. In relation to damp and mould, Central Bedfordshire Council prioritises cases by urgency, however there is no tracking, monitoring, or reporting of the number and age of cases. Our engagement following the inspection will include monitoring that Central Bedfordshire Council completes all actions resulting from health and safety checks and is managing and mitigating any associated risks to tenants in the meantime.   

Central Bedfordshire Council could not provide assurance that it delivers an effective, efficient and timely repairs service as required by the Safety and Quality Standard. Central Bedfordshire Council told us it has more than 1,800 overdue repairs orders. It has prioritised emergency repairs, with 98.9% being completed on time, however it is unable to accurately report average repairs times for routine repairs. We will continue to engage with Central Bedfordshire Council as it seeks to deliver an improved repairs service for tenants. 

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to have an accurate record, at an individual property level, of the condition of their homes based on a physical assessment of all homes and ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. We have limited assurance that Central Bedfordshire Council has an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of its stock quality and decency. A full physical stock condition survey is underway and due to be completed in March 2025. As a result of the lack of recent information on the quality of its homes, Central Bedfordshire Council has been unable to evidence its reported decency rate of 99.6%. We will continue to engage with Central Bedfordshire Council as it completes the stock condition survey, seeks to understand the quality of its homes, and uses the information to inform its improvement programmes.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with appropriate local authority departments, the police and other relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. We saw evidence that Central Bedfordshire Council deals effectively with anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in line with its policy and procedures and in partnership with relevant organisations.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we found evidence that Central Bedfordshire Council is offering tenancies or terms of occupation which are compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of their housing stock. Central Bedfordshire Council has a lettings policy that sets out its approach to ensuring all properties are let in a fair and transparent way and considers the needs of tenants and prospective tenants.

We found failings in relation to Central Bedfordshire Council delivering the outcomes of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. This standard sets out the outcomes landlords must deliver about being open with tenants and treating them with fairness and respect so that tenants can access services, raise complaints, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account. We observed a respectful approach to tenants during our inspection. We also saw a recognition that tenants need to be at the centre of decision making, though we did not see evidence of this in current practice. Central Bedfordshire Council also does not have sufficient information to demonstrate that it understands the diverse needs of its tenants nor how its services deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. 

We do not have assurance that Central Bedfordshire Council is using tenant engagement as a mechanism to influence how it delivers its services. We found a limited range of opportunities for tenants to scrutinise their landlord’s performance and influence how its housing services are delivered, and we do not have assurance that these opportunities are meaningful. Central Bedfordshire Council told us it is producing a new tenant engagement strategy and that tenants will be included within a new landlord assurance board. We will continue to engage with Central Bedfordshire Council as it makes improvements to tenant engagement.

Through the inspection, we did not see evidence that Central Bedfordshire Council regularly provides a range of relevant and accessible information to tenants, including about its performance in delivering landlord services. We found most information for tenants is only readily available digitally and tenants raised concerns about poor communication and a lack of face-to-face interaction.

In respect of complaint handling, the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible information to tenants about the type of complaints received and how they have learnt from complaints to continuously improve services. We saw evidence that Central Bedfordshire Council provides tenants with information on complaints numbers, themes and lessons learned on an annual basis. Central Bedfordshire Council has made changes to improve its complaints handling system and processes, but these have not yet delivered improved outcomes for tenants. Central Bedfordshire Council also recognises that further improvements are needed to the reporting and oversight of complaint handling. We will continue to monitor these improvements through ongoing engagement with Central Bedfordshire Council.

Central Bedfordshire Council has been engaging constructively with us. It has an understanding of the issues it needs to address and is taking action to rectify the failures identified. These include gaining a better understanding of the condition of its homes, new systems and validation of health and safety information, a new strategy and structure for tenant engagement, and improved oversight of landlord services.

We are engaging Central Bedfordshire Council as it continues to address the issues set out in this judgement. Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that Central Bedfordshire Council is making sufficient change and progress, 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 Central Bedfordshire Council seeks to resolve these issues. 

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Central Bedfordshire Council was formed in 2009, bringing together the former districts of Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire following a reorganisation of local government in Bedfordshire. Central Bedfordshire Council owns and manages 5,424 homes.

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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard