News, Politics

Nottingham council aiming for better housing ‘in six months to a year’ after serious failings found

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

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Nottingham City Council is aiming to improve its housing in “six months to a year” after a regulator found “serious failings” and awarded it the second-lowest possible rating.

In October last year the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), the independent body responsible for checking council housing, inspected the council’s housing as part of work to check landlords were meeting new rules.

New standards for all social housing providers were introduced from April last year.

Following the inspection the council was given the second-worst rating by the regulator in January.

The regulator can award four consumer standards grades, C1, C2, C3 and C4.

C1, the highest grade, means the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, while C4, the lowest grade, is given when there are very serious failings which the landlord must make “fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered”. Nottingham City Council has been given C3.

The inspection report said it had found “serious failings in delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.”

In response the authority has drawn up a a post-inspection improvement plan.

During a Housing and City Development Scrutiny Committee meeting on Monday (March 17) councillors discussed progress made under the plan.

Geoff Wharton, consultant director for housing at the council, said: “In my professional opinion in six months to one year you will be in a good position to be reassessed and hopefully we’ll get to C2.”

According to the regulator’s report, there was a lack of up-to-date data of its housing quality and decency, while almost 40 per cent of Nottingham council homes had not been surveyed for more than ten years.

The last check was done more than eight years ago, when Nottingham City Homes (NCH) was in charge of the city’s social housing.

The arms-length management organisation is now directly managed by the Labour-run authority.

It was wound up after it emerged millions of pounds in rent payers’ money from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was unlawfully diverted to the council’s general fund to prop-up other services.

The council says it had already started a full stock condition survey on all of its 24,500 properties last summer, before the regulator visited.

The £4m survey is being carried out on the authority’s behalf by property firm Savills.

So far the council says it has “exceeded its stock condition survey target”, completing 3,877 surveys, surpassing the original target of 3,678.

The target for February 2025 was 4,878 surveys.

Another key issue related to repairs, after the regulator found almost 1,000 outstanding cases of repairs or checks.

The council says it has since reduced the number of live cases from 1,000 to 974.

The number of work orders raised for corrective repairs is now reducing too, but the figure is still around 100,000 per year, documents show.

A new plan has now further introduced expanded tenant engagement initiatives, including regular surveys, consultations, and “roadshows”, after the regulator found tenants felt disengaged.

Cllr David Mellen (Lab), the former leader of the council who now sits as a member of the committee, said he felt there remains some level of “complacency and arrogance”, shown by the fact “landlord of the year” posters from 2018 are still present across the city.

“I just don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves,” he added.

“I don’t want to say everything is terrible, because it is not, but on the other hand we need to be realistic about where things need to improve and show our tenants we are aware of all of that.”