Decision

High Peak Borough Council (17UH) Regulatory Judgement: 14 August 2024

Published 14 August 2024

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C2 Our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.	First grading	August 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for High Peak Borough Council (High Peak BC) following an inspection completed in August 2024.

This regulatory judgment confirms a consumer grading of C2. 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 some weaknesses in High Peak BC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and 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 C2 grade for High Peak BC.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of High Peak BC to assess how well High Peak BC 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 the Housing Board and the Corporate Health and Safety Compliance Group meeting. We also met with tenants, officers and elected members including the leader of the Council and the portfolio holder for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by High Peak BC.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information received from High Peak BC through routine regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – August 2024

In relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, High Peak BC provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to manage its health and safety responsibilities and to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. Outcomes across the main health and safety compliance areas are good, and performance is actively monitored by senior officers and councillors. High Peak BC has developed its approach to damp and mould so that it can respond effectively to reports and manage risks to tenants.

We have assurance High Peak BC is delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs service. High Peak BC has systems in place for monitoring and maintaining oversight of its performance in relation to repairs. It is performing consistently above its service standard for the timeliness of repairs, and its service standard on how satisfied tenants are with their completed repairs.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to have an accurate record of the condition of its homes at an individual property level based on a physical assessment of all homes and ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Home Standard. High Peak BC provided evidence that it has an understanding of the condition of its homes and is currently in the process of updating the information it holds. High Peak BC has a number of homes which are failing to meet the Decent Homes Standard. It has been reducing the number of non-decent homes through planned investment and we will continue to engage with High Peak BC to monitor its progress on this.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard includes the requirement for landlords to provide information so tenants can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord, and hold their landlord to account. It also requires landlords to ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. Through our inspection, we found that there are limited meaningful opportunities for High Peak BC’s tenants to influence and scrutinise High Peak BC’s strategies, policies and services. High Peak BC has only recently restarted its tenant engagement and scrutiny group and acknowledges that this is an area that needs to be improved. In relation to this, High Peak BC has started taking steps to implement the recommendations of an external review. This work is ongoing, and we will continue to monitor how High Peak BC is strengthening its approach to tenant engagement.    

While High Peak BC provides accessible information to tenants about its complaints policy and its complaints handling process, it was unable to evidence that every complaint was properly recorded as such. There was limited evidence of processes in place for High Peak BC to learn from complaints and use them to improve services. While High Peak BC has information about the diverse needs of its tenants, there was limited information to assess whether its housing and landlord services deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. During our engagement, we found that High Peak BC provided limited performance information to tenants. We will engage with High Peak BC as it makes improvements in these areas.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard states that landlords must 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. High Peak BC provided evidence that it works with a range of relevant partner organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhoods where it provides homes. We saw evidence that it has oversight of the number of anti-social behaviour cases and hate incidents and that it uses a range of powers where appropriate.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that High Peak BC was offering tenancies or terms of occupation which were compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

High Peak BC owns and manages around 3,800 social housing homes.

The majority of homes are general needs with some supported and sheltered housing.

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