The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has received a C3 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) after an inspection found ‘significant improvement’ is required to meet the stock quality and decency elements of the Safety and Quality Standard.

In its judgement, the regulator said RBKC meets the outcomes of RSH’s standards in a number of areas, including health and safety compliance, its repairs process, and the way it engages with tenants.

However, an inspection found that RBKC needs to improve its understanding of tenants’ homes at an individual level, and also undertake required work to ensure tenants’ homes meet the Decent Homes standard.

The regulator added that the council has engaged constructively with RSH since it self-referred before the inspection and it is already making progress to address the issues identified.

Commenting on the C3 grading, the leader of RBKC, Cllr Elizabeth Campbell, said: “Since the Grenfell tragedy this council has changed and continues to change.

“Our adults’ and children’s social care departments were both recently rated outstanding and we intend to deliver the same results in housing. We know we have work to do, and we have a plan to get there.

“In housing, we have prioritised safety works and it is reassuring that the housing regulator’s report recognises that we are meeting all the safety standards.

“We need to better understand the condition of all our housing and bring all our residents’ homes up to the housing regulator’s standard for decent homes, with things like improved kitchens and bathrooms.

“We expect to have surveyed the condition of all our housing stock next year, and we will be 100% compliant in the decent homes standard by 2030.

“The report acknowledges that we are meeting 18 of the 20 required outcomes and I personally am very pleased to see positive feedback on how we engage and consult with our residents, how our repairs service works without a backlog and how we are improving neighbourhoods and tackling anti-social behaviour with our partners.

“I want to thank our residents for their continued patience and valued input as we work towards being the best council for our communities.”

In other judgements published today, Arun District Council has received a C4 grading, meaning there are ‘very serious failings’ and fundamental changes are needed.

During an inspection of the council, RSH found:

• Around 2,500 open and overdue repairs cases
• Nearly 1,000 overdue fire risk assessment remedial actions
• Over half of its homes do not have smoke detectors and it does not expect to reach compliance in this area until May 2027
• A lack of meaningful opportunities for tenants to scrutinise performance and influence services
• A lack of evidence that it is taking prompt and appropriate action in response to anti-social behaviour cases and hate incidents.

The regulator said Arun DC understands the issues it needs to address and is taking action to rectify the very serious failures. The council has been engaging constructively with RSH and it is now expected to develop a comprehensive plan that will drive fundamental change across all the areas identified.

Meanwhile, L&Q and Saxon Weald were both downgraded to G2, meaning that both landlords still meet the governance requirements overall but need to improve some aspects of their arrangements to support continued compliance.

L&Q needs to strengthen its performance reporting to ensure appropriate board oversight and assurance, particularly in relation to delivering its plans for improving outcomes for tenants.

Improvement is also needed in L&Q’s approach to assessing the effectiveness of its governance arrangements, so that it can ensure these continue to support the delivery of the organisation’s aims and objectives.

RSH found evidence of weaknesses in Saxon Weald’s risk and control framework relating to procurement, contract management and some aspects of financial controls. This resulted in an overspend in relation to fire safety actions which was not identified until after costs had been incurred.

RSH also confirmed the removal of the 2023 regulatory notice for the London Borough of Harrow, which found that it had failed to meet statutory health and safety requirements for electrical and water safety, as those issues have now been resolved.

Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH, said:  “Social landlords need to have a strong understanding of their tenants’ homes and ensure that all homes are of a decent standard. Equally, boards must maintain oversight and robust financial governance in order to provide good quality homes and services to tenants.

“We will continue to keep social landlords under close scrutiny through our inspection programme and wider regulatory engagement. We continue to reinforce the importance of self-referrals by landlords, which enables issues to be resolved more quickly.”

The full list of judgements published today is provided in the table below:

Landlord	Consumer grade	Governance Grade	Viability Grade	Engagement Process
Arun District Council	C4	–	–	Inspection
Citizen Housing Group Limited	C1	G1	V2	Inspection
Hexagon Housing Association Limited	C2	G2	V2	Inspection
London & Quadrant Housing Trust	C2	G2 (downgrade)	V2	Inspection
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea	C3	–	–	Inspection
Saxon Weald	C2 (based on previous assessment)	G2 (downgrade)	V2 (based on previous assessment)	Responsive Engagement
Stonewater Limited	C2	G1	V2 (regrade from V1)	Inspection