Mansfield District Council (37UF) - Regulatory Judgement: 26 February 2025
Published 26 February 2025
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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 | February 2025 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Mansfield District Council (Mansfield DC) following an inspection completed in February 2025.
The regulatory judgement 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, our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in Mansfield DC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and the Neighbourhood and Community Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Mansfield DC.
How we reached our judgement
We carried out an inspection of Mansfield DC to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. 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 Executive Board, a council cabinet meeting and a Tenant Scrutiny Panel meeting. We met with involved tenants, officers and councillors, including the leader of the council, the mayor and the cabinet member for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Mansfield DC.
Our regulatory judgement is based on all the information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information supplied by Mansfield DC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.
Summary of findings
Consumer – C2 – February 2025
The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to complete all required health and safety checks. Mansfield DC provided evidence to show that, overall, it is meeting the legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. Risks and actions identified are completed within reasonable timescales and performance is actively monitored by senior officers and councillors.
The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced 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 Standards (DHS). Mansfield DC currently has records at an individual property level of the condition of around half of its homes. It is monitoring the delivery of its ongoing stock condition survey programme and has plans to ensure that physical surveys of the condition of all of its homes have been undertaken by April 2025. The council is currently reporting that 89% of its homes meet the DHS and plans are in place to achieve 100%. We have seen evidence that Mansfield DC is managing the risks associated with damp and mould and has prioritised remedial works but recognises that it needs to take steps to adopt a more planned approach.
Landlords must provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which they are responsible. While emergency and urgent repairs are generally delivered in line with service standards, recognising that improvements are needed, Mansfield DC has recently implemented plans to reduce its non-urgent repair performance times and address a lack of consistency in how tenants are kept informed about repairs.
Through our meeting observations and other inspection activities, we saw evidence that Mansfield DC is delivering the required outcomes of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, but there are some weaknesses. The 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.
Mansfield DC provides information that enables tenants to access landlord services. However, scope remains to enhance performance information and reporting directly to tenants around landlord health and safety and complaints performance. Mansfield DC demonstrated a commitment to treating tenants with fairness and respect and we saw some evidence that tenants’ views have been used to influence how services, such as complaints handling, are improved. Mansfield DC uses information it holds on tenants’ individual diverse needs when responding to service requests but could not demonstrate full coverage of information or how its services deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. Improving the extent and quality of the information Mansfield DC holds about the diverse needs of its tenants will enhance its ability to proactively tailor services to tenants’ individual needs.
Mansfield DC’s approach to tenant engagement is developing. The council has plans to work with tenants further to establish and define its approach to tenant engagement, to ensure relevant performance information is shared in a timely manner and to give tenants sufficient meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise its services, strategies and policies. During the inspection we observed positive interaction between staff and tenants, and we have assurance that Mansfield DC is committed to building on its existing arrangements to support tenants.
Mansfield DC’s approach to complaints handling is publicised for tenants and broadly aligns with the requirements of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. We identified that Mansfield DC’s approach to dealing fairly and effectively with complaints and its approach to learning from complaints was more limited. Mansfield DC needs to strengthen its approach and use information to continuously improve services.
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 (ASB) and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. We saw evidence that Mansfield DC works in partnership with the police and other relevant organisations to seek to deter and tackle ASB. There are numerous ways for tenants to report ASB including online and by telephone and Mansfield DC sets out its approach to deterring and tackling ASB and hate incidents in its ASB policy. We identified weaknesses in Mansfield DC’s approach towards case management, its ability to identify trends and learn from complaints. While Mansfield DC monitors the number of cases, we observed a lack of robust mechanisms for regular performance scrutiny, particularly for hate crime.
In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Mansfield DC’s housing allocations policy 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 saw evidence that tenancies are allocated in line with our Standard and the inspection provided assurance about the work Mansfield DC does to support tenants to sustain their tenancies. Mansfield DC failed to report an issue with its mutual exchange programme where it required tenants to pay an annual fee to access mutual exchange services between 2017 and 2023. This was not in line with the Tenancy Standard that was in effect during that period. The council has taken some steps to address this, but we consider this demonstrates that there is weakness in the council’s ability to identify issues when they arise and take appropriate action to address them in a timely manner.
We will continue to engage with Mansfield DC as it develops and delivers its improvement plans and to seek assurance that there are improved outcomes for tenants.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
Mansfield DC is located in the East Midlands, within the county of Nottinghamshire and owns around 6,300 social housing homes including general needs, sheltered and supported 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.