Improvement Plan In Place After Housing Inspection
A detailed improvement plan already in place is being bolstered by the Council to further drive up standards for tenants and increase the responsiveness of its repairs service, following a disappointing housing inspection result.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) notified Reading Borough Council in December of a planned inspection, beginning an information gathering process which culminated in an onsite inspection of the Council’s housing service between February 11 and 13 this year. It has resulted in a number of recommendations being made to the Council for improvement.
In its report published today (April 30) the RSH acknowledges that the Council understands the challenges it faces. It also notes the plans already put in place by the Council to make improvements against the issues raised.
The RSH’s report states: “Reading Borough Council has been engaging constructively with us and has plans in place to address most of these failings, including delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs service, and ensuring that tenants have meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise services”.
It emphasises, however, that a judgement can only be based on findings at the time of the inspection, as opposed to what the Council’s Improvement Plan will deliver going forward. On that basis the RSH provided the Council with a C3 grading confirming “serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed”.
Over half (19 of 35) of local authorities assessed since the RSH’s new consumer standards were introduced in April 2024 have received the same C3 judgement as Reading. This demonstrates a wider desire from the Regulator to raise existing standards for tenants nationally, an ambition Reading Council shares locally.
In summary, the Regulator concluded that there were serious failings in the Council’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed. These were specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and the Neighbourhood and Community Standard.
The RSH noted that there were approximately 1,600 overdue housing repairs at the time of the inspection, adding “Whilst Reading BC has been implementing plans to address these issues, there remains significant work to do in this area”.
Reading Council’s Housing department is now in the process of carrying out a detailed review of its existing Improvement Plan to ensure it meets all requirements of the Regulator and prioritises the most urgent issues. Ongoing intensive engagement with the RSH will also take place in the form of provider improvement meetings.
Matt Yeo, Lead Councillor for Housing, said:
“While an obviously disappointing inspection outcome, its findings were largely in line with the Council’s own Improvement Plan and the areas we had already identified for attention, in particular the need to improve the responsiveness of our housing repairs service, which has already been moving in the right direction.
“We welcome the additional input and assistance from the Regulator for Social Housing on the steps we are already taking to make further improvements for our tenants. The Regulator has acknowledged in its report that we have already embarked on that journey, but not sufficiently far enough at this time to provide a higher grading.
I’m confident that the steps we have already put in place, and strengthened following the inspection report, will get us to where we, and the Regulator, want us to be. We additionally welcome the continued and regular dialogue with the RSH planned for the future to ensure we can deliver a more efficient and responsive service to our tenants in the shortest time possible”.