A local authority in Kent has received a C3 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) after an inspection found serious failings in its completion of health and safety remedial works.

Canterbury City Council was also found to have weaknesses in a number of other areas, including:

• Gaps in the data it holds on its homes, with only 27.5% of homes surveyed so far

• No current adaptations policy to meet tenants’ needs, with a number of adaptations works incomplete

• Weaknesses in the reporting and monitoring of anti-social behaviour

• Delays in responding to tenants’ complaints and in the oversight of complaints made directly to contractors by tenants.

In a statement, Canterbury City Council’s Joint Chief Executive Suzi Wakeham, said: “Referring ourselves was the right and honest thing to do when we spotted weaknesses in our stock condition data, recognised our poor performance in dealing with tenant complaints and realised we needed better data about our tenants so we can ensure we engage with all of them effectively and ensure our services are easy to access.

“Officers are working hard every day to deliver our service improvement action plan and we will keep in close touch with the regulator on our progress.

“Councillors and officers really care about the homes we provide to the people that desperately need them and the regulator’s verdict has reinforced our determination to keep pushing for better in everything we do.”

The council’s Director of People Marie Royle, added: “We are straining every sinew to overcome a longstanding legacy from the failures of East Kent Housing when it was responsible for our council homes plus high demand for social housing, ageing homes, the financial pressures on councils who manage their own social housing and the effect of the Right to Buy which meant we lost some of our best council homes and could not replace them.

“Councillors and officers are passionate about the service the council provides and they are the ones who spotted the issues we are now tackling.

“Everywhere we look, we can see the hard work is paying off and there are signs of real and tangible progress. For example, our independent internal auditors say health and safety compliance is improving every day.”

RSH also published regulatory judgements for Cambridge City Council and Trident Housing Association, after both landlords addressed previous issues relating to the rent standard.

Cambridge CC has put arrangements in place to refund impacted tenants, following a judgement from July 2024. It has strengthened its approach to rent setting, acting on third party advice as well as undertaking internal audits to ensure that its data is accurate.

Following a judgement from December 2024, Trident has also begun to refund affected tenants and has strengthened its internal controls and assurance to its board to prevent recurrence.

Trident was also upgraded to G1, meaning the landlord meets our governance requirements. Its viability grading remained unchanged at V2.

Cambridge and Trident, alongside Lewes and Eastbourne councils, all received C2 gradings following planned inspections. This means there are some weaknesses in their delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.

Angela Holden, Director of Regulatory Engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing at RSH, said: “We will continue to engage with Canterbury City Council as it works to address these issues, including taking steps to mitigate risks to tenants as it delivers its improvement plan.

“As our we approach the halfway mark of our new inspection programme, we will continue to hold landlords to account, ensuring they are meeting the outcomes of our standards and providing safe, decent homes for tenants.”

Latest judgements:

Landlord	Consumer	Governance	Viability	Route
Canterbury City Council	C3	–	–	Inspection
Trident Housing Association Limited	C2	G1 (upgrade)	V2	Inspection
Cambridge City Council	C2	–	–	Inspection
Eastbourne Borough Council	C2	–	–	Inspection
Lewes District Council	C2	–	–	Inspection