Waverley Borough Council (43UL) - 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 Waverley Borough Council (Waverley BC) 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 Waverley BC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Waverley BC.
How we reached our judgement
We carried out an inspection of Waverley BC 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 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 landlord services advisory board, the Waverley tenants panel, an overview and scrutiny committee meeting and a meeting of the Waverley BC executive. We met with involved tenants, officers and councillors, including the leader of Waverley BC and the co-portfolio holders for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Waverley BC.
Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information received from Waverley BC through regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.
Summary of findings
Consumer – C2 – February 2025
The Safety and Quality Standard 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 Standard (DHS). During the inspection, Waverley BC provided evidence that it has an accurate record of the condition of its homes, primarily through physical surveys, and a process to keep this information up to date. However, Waverley BC has a number of homes that are failing to meet the DHS. Waverley BC has plans in place to ensure all its homes meet this standard, and we will continue to monitor and gain assurance that it is delivering these plans.
We have assurance that Waverley BC has appropriate systems in place to manage its health and safety responsibilities and to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. Broadly, the outcomes across health and safety compliance areas are good. We noted that performance reporting to senior officers, councillors and involved tenants has recently improved. We also saw evidence that Waverley BC is managing risks associated with damp and mould, albeit it could undertake further work to understand themes and trends in this area to better inform its preventative maintenance planning. Waverley BC is undertaking work to address weaknesses in its water safety programme as well as further work to ensure the validity of its health and safety compliance data. We will continue to engage with Waverley BC to monitor its progress and obtain assurance that it is addressing these weaknesses.
Our inspection and engagement with Waverley BC and its tenants identified that there are weaknesses in the provision of an effective, efficient and timely repairs service. Waverley BC has not consistently met its published performance targets in this area, including tenant satisfaction. Issues relate to the timeliness of non‑emergency repairs, aids and adaptations, and the maintenance of empty homes. While Waverley BC has engaged with key stakeholders around these issues, including its primary repairs contractor, the improvement plan is still underway. We will continue to engage with Waverley BC and seek assurance that progress is made so that outcomes for tenants are improved.
The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with relevant organisations to promote positive outcomes for tenants. Waverley BC demonstrated that it works effectively with partner agencies, including the police and charities, on a range of interventions to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides its homes. We saw evidence that Waverley BC responds to reports of anti-social behaviour, in accordance with its policy and has acted on the recommendations from reviews of this service to improve outcomes for tenants. However, while we saw recent improvements in performance reporting around anti-social behaviour incidents, this reporting did not distinguish hate incidents. Waverley BC confirmed that a revised safeguarding policy that distinguished hate incidents is in development and that there would be increased focus in this area.
With regard to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Waverley BC 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. Waverley BC also operates a choice-based lettings system. However, we saw some weaknesses regarding the ongoing support offered to tenants. Waverley BC has a programme of tenancy audits to support tenants, but these are not progressing at the pace expected. Waverley BC has plans to increase performance in this area, and we will continue to gain assurance that it is making progress.
The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible 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 take tenants’ views into account when making decisions about the delivery of landlord services. We gained some assurance that Waverley BC provides opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise services and saw evidence that tenant feedback had directly and positively impacted on service delivery. We noted that Waverley BC could do more to broaden the range of tenants it engages with and ensure that feedback from tenants reflects the borough’s demographics. Additionally, Waverley BC has not always sought feedback from non-engaged tenants, and certain tenant scrutiny groups had limited numbers of active tenant members. Waverley BC recognises these as areas of weakness and has put steps in place to drive improvements including refreshing its tenant engagement strategy. We will continue to work with Waverley BC as its looks to improve outcomes in this area.
During the inspection we gained assurance that Waverley BC is committed to treating tenants and prospective tenants with fairness and respect. We saw evidence that Waverley BC has some understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants, but it needs to undertake more work to improve the information it holds about its tenants. This will enhance Waverley BC’s ability to tailor services to tenants’ individual needs and ensure the delivery of fair and equitable outcomes. Waverley BC has identified this as an area of weakness and has plans to improve the amount and quality of information it holds.
Waverley BC’s complaints handling service is in a period of transition and recent changes made to the service has led to demonstrably better performance. However, due to the timing of the inspection, we have not seen sustained improvements and so we will continue to engage with Waverley BC to gain assurance that changes leading to improved outcomes for tenants continue to be embedded.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
Waverley BC is in Surrey and owns around 4,800 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.