A local authority is celebrating after it received a C1 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) for the quality of its services to residents.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council received the coveted top grading after an inspection by the regulator found it met the consumer standards. Only seven local authorities in England have received a C1 grading to date.

The council’s housing service BCP Homes was praised by the regulator for its work on repairs, quality, housing management and safety across its 9,600 rented homes.

The regulator also highlighted the council’s engagement with residents to ensure their views are respected, listened to and acted on. Specifically, it highlighted the proactive approach to dealing with damp and mould and how the council provides assurance that its homes are safe, with smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and regular checks.

Councillor Kieron Wilson, BCP Council’s Cabinet Member responsible for housing and regulatory services, said: “Our priority is to provide quality homes for our residents – not simply bricks and mortar.

“We are incredibly proud of this grading outcome, especially in the context that only six other councils have achieved a C1. Which is testament to the hard-working team we have at BCP Homes (pictured) who are genuinely passionate and work so hard every day to make sure our tenants receive a high level of service.

“We are always striving to be a council and landlord who listens, learns and improves. Residents’ voices are at the heart of everything we do, and tenants have worked proactively with us to help shape the housing management services we provide today.

“This is of course a huge achievement; however, this should be seen as a very important milestone on a journey to deliver even more for our residents. We always want to go further and provide the best service we possibly can.”

Elsewhere, Cheshire-based Peaks & Plains Housing Trust received C1/G1/V2 gradings, meaning that while it meets the consumer and governance standards and it has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, it needs to manage material risks to its viability to ensure continued compliance.

Mark Howden, Chief Executive at Peaks and Plains, said: “The successful outcome of our latest regulatory judgement reflects our commitment to delivering safe, high-quality homes and services for our customers.

“It demonstrates how strong governance, transparency, and a resident-focused approach sit at the heart of everything we do. We’re very proud of this result, and even as we celebrate, we recognise that there is always more to do and will continue our work to improve.”

Meanwhile, the City of Wolverhampton Council and St Albans City and District Council both received C2 gradings, meaning there are some weaknesses in their delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.

The City of Wolverhampton Council needs to improve data on its homes and has plans to bring more homes up to the Decent Homes Standard. Though its repairs service meets the regulator’s requirements, the council also needs to improve its communication with tenants, including on repairs timescales.

The RSH inspection of St Albans found that while it has a good understanding of its homes and the vast majority meet the Decent Homes Standard, there were some weaknesses in its oversight and reporting of remedial actions from health and safety checks. It also needs to make improvements in meeting its target in relation to the timely completion of routine repairs.

RSH also published stability check outcomes for six landlords. All retained their current governance and viability gradings except Ocean Housing Group Limited, which was downgraded to a G2 governance grading. It retained its V2 grading.

Ocean Housing needs to improve the effectiveness of its risk and control framework in relation to oversight and management of strategic risks associated with its unregistered subsidiary, Gilbert and Goode.

Ocean Housing has also not ensured an effective approach to procurement, contract management and budgetary control in relation to its repairs service. Weaknesses in procurement of works and contract monitoring resulted in unknown overspends against its repairs budget.

Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement, said: “While it is encouraging to see more landlords achieve C1 gradings as our regulation drives improvements across the sector, there is nevertheless no room for complacency – even for those landlords that receive the highest grades. We will continue to root out issues through our inspections, stability checks and other regulatory tools.

“Social landlords are facing intensifying risks so good governance remains more important than ever. Weaknesses in governance. can undermine a landlord’s ability to maintain financial viability or to provide good homes and services to tenants.

“We will continue to engage constructively with these landlords where there are issues to ensure things are put right promptly.”

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

Landlord	Consumer	Governance	Viability	Engagement Process
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council	C1	–	–	Inspection
Broadacres Housing Association Limited	C2	G2	V2	Stability Check
Cheshire Peaks & Plains Housing Trust Limited	C1	G1	V2	Inspection
City of Wolverhampton Council	C2	–	–	Inspection
Gloucester City Homes Limited	–	G1	V2	Stability Check
Ocean Housing Group Limited	–	G2 (downgrade)	V2	Stability Check and Responsive Engagement
Places for People Group Limited	C1	G1	V2	Stability Check
Plus Dane Housing Limited	C2	G2	V2	Stability Check
Sovereign Network Group	C2	G1	V2	Stability Check
St Albans City and District Council	C2	–	–	Inspection