Decision

London Borough of Newham (00BB) - Regulatory Judgement: 16 October 2024

Published 16 October 2024

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C4 Our judgement is that there are very serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered.	First grading	October 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for London Borough of Newham (LB Newham) following an inspection completed in October 2024.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C4. 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 very serious failings in LB Newham delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and it must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard and our Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Although LB Newham has indicated a willingness to address these serious failings, we have not yet seen evidence to sufficiently assure us of its ability to put matters right. Based on our assessment of the seriousness of the failures and the changes needed to improve outcomes for tenants, we have concluded a C4 grade for LB Newham.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of LB Newham to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards overall, 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 LB Newham’s Cabinet Accountability Portfolio meeting for housing services, and a meeting of the Repairs and Scrutiny Panel. As part of the inspection, we met with engaged tenants, officers, and the Cabinet Member for Housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by LB Newham.

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

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C4 – October 2024

We have found serious failings in how LB Newham is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and evidence that this has had a significant impact on service outcomes for tenants. Our judgement is based on the scale and breadth of the issues identified during the inspection and the significant impact or potential impact on LB Newham’s tenants. The issues include a failure to meet legal fire and electrical safety requirements, a lack of accurate information on stock quality, repairs not being completed on time and homes not meeting the Decent Homes Standard. LB Newham did not complete the Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) surveys within the specified timescale and has very limited meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise its strategies, policies and services. LB Newham has indicated a willingness to address the issues, however, it had not self-referred to us before the inspection, nor had we seen evidence that it had communicated with its tenants about the issues identified. Fundamental changes are required to the service to improve outcomes for tenants. LB Newham’s response to date has not yet provided evidence to assure us of its ability to put matters right.

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. Through our meeting observations and other inspection activities, we found very serious failings in LB Newham delivering these outcomes.

In respect of electrical safety, at the time of inspection over 40% of LB Newham’s homes had not had an electrical condition test for more than 11 years. LB Newham has developed a programme to complete all overdue safety checks, however, it was only able to provide limited evidence on its mitigation of electrical safety risks while outstanding checks are completed, and was unable to provide sufficient assurance that it is effectively mitigating those risks in the meantime. LB Newham self-referred this to us following a data validation exercise at the same time as the inspection.

In respect of fire safety, we identified from information provided by LB Newham in the course of our inspection that there were over 9,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions, of which over 8,000 were overdue by more than 12 months. Over 4,000 actions were categorised as high risk by LB Newham. LB Newham has plans in place to complete these overdue remedial actions but was unable to provide sufficient assurance that it is effectively mitigating fire safety risks for all homes affected in the meantime. LB Newham had not self-referred this matter to us.

In relation to smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, LB Newham has not been able to evidence that it is meeting the requirements of the relevant regulations for any of its homes, although it has provided information of a process of testing alarms. LB Newham had not-self referred this matter to us.

In our ongoing engagement with LB Newham, an immediate priority is for LB Newham to provide us with assurance that it has appropriate arrangements in place for effectively managing and mitigating any relevant risks to tenants while it completes the necessary checks and all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to have an accurate and up to date understanding of the condition of their homes at an individual property level based on a physical assessment of all homes and ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard.

Through our inspection we identified LB Newham does not have up to date stock condition information on the majority of its homes. Around 60% of LB Newham’s homes have not been surveyed within the last five years, and where surveys have been carried out, they have not all included an assessment of hazards using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. As a result, in relation to a substantial majority of its homes, LB Newham lacks up to date information as to whether its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard. Given the limited availability of up-to-date stock condition information and the lack of a systematic and effective approach to assessing and managing stock condition, we do not have assurance that LB Newham has a sufficient understanding of its homes to deliver the relevant outcomes in the Safety and Quality Standard. Furthermore, LB Newham reported to us that at least 20% of its homes do not meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. LB Newham has informed us that it plans to carry out a full stock condition survey to improve its understanding of the condition of its homes and has plans to invest in its homes to reduce the level of non-decency.

The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which they are responsible. LB Newham had a repairs improvement plan to address underperformance in repairs. In its TSM return LB Newham reported that 67% of non-emergency repairs and 96% of emergency repairs were completed within target timescales. At the time of the inspection LB Newham had around 5,400 open repairs, of which 49% were outside of target dates, some of which were from earlier than 2024. While performance had improved, during the inspection it acknowledged that this area requires significant improvement.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability 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. Through our meeting observations and other inspection activities, we found serious failings in LB Newham delivering the required outcomes in this area. During the inspection we did not see evidence that LB Newham had been transparent with its tenants about the health and safety issues identified.

LB Newham has very limited mechanisms in place at this time to ensure information about its tenants remains up to date and it was only able to provide limited evidence of how it tailors services for its tenants. LB Newham recognises the need for improvements and is taking steps to address the identified weaknesses in this area. We also found limited evidence that LB Newham provides a range of relevant and accessible information for tenants about its landlord services, including how it is performing, and we did not see evidence of it keeping tenants informed when things go wrong. Through our meeting observations, we did however observe a respectful approach to tenants, we saw some evidence of LB Newham taking the diverse needs of tenants into account, and we saw evidence of LB Newham ensuring services were accessible to tenants with diverse needs.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also includes the requirement for landlords to collect and report annually on their performance using a core set of defined Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) in order to support effective scrutiny by tenants. This must be done in accordance with our requirements in ‘Tenant Satisfaction Measures: Technical requirements’ and ‘Tenant Satisfaction Measures: Tenant survey requirements’. We identified that LB Newham failed to follow our technical requirements for collecting its TSM data, completing around one-third of surveys outside of the specified timescale, and as a result tenants are not fully supported to effectively scrutinise its performance in delivering landlord services.

We found there were very limited meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise LB Newham’s strategies, policies and services. LB Newham’s resident involvement strategy is subject to review, and it is in the early stages of developing its tenant engagement structures. We saw some evidence that tenants are able to participate in tenant led activities and opportunities, although this is limited at this time. LB Newham acknowledges that this is an area that requires significant improvement.

LB Newham’s approach to complaints handling is accessible and publicised and broadly aligns with the requirements of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. A high number of complaints relate to repairs and LB Newham recognises that improvements in its repairs service will help it to address complaints about this issue.

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. LB Newham provided evidence that it works with partner organisations as required by the standard.

The standard also requires landlords to clearly set out their approach for how they deter and tackle hate incidents in neighbourhoods where they provide social housing, and enable anti-social behaviour and hate crime incidents to be reported easily. Through our inspection we identified potential under reporting of hate crime incidents as there are very low levels of reported hate crime incidents. We identified that there is scope for LB Newham to develop its approach to reports of hate crime incidents which will improve its services and allow it to demonstrate improved outcomes for tenants. LB Newham acknowledges that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, and we have seen evidence of some its plans to address it.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that LB Newham offers tenancies or terms of occupation that are 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. We gained assurance that LB Newham allocates and lets its homes in a fair and transparent manner that takes into account the needs of tenants and prospective tenants.

LB Newham has engaged constructively with us throughout the inspection and has indicated a willingness to address this situation, but we have not yet seen evidence to sufficiently assure us of its ability to put matters right. Taking this into account, alongside the breadth and significance of the very material issues, we have concluded that there are very serious failings in how LB Newham is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, and it must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered for tenants.

LB Newham has some plans in place to address a number of the issues identified, but we expect it to develop a comprehensive plan that will drive significant change across all of the areas identified, and to share that with tenants. Our engagement with LB Newham will be intensive and we will seek evidence that gives us the assurance that sufficient change and progress is being made. Our priority will be that risks to tenants’ safety are adequately managed and mitigated. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as LB Newham seeks to resolve these issues.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

LB Newham owns around 16,000 social housing homes. The majority of these are directly managed by LB Newham (around 14,000 homes) and the rest are managed through private finance initiatives or tenant management arrangements, although LB Newham remains ultimately responsible for its social homes that are managed in this way.

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