Norwich City Council has been given a C1 grading in the latest batch of regulatory judgements from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

The grading means the council meets the outcomes of the regulator’s consumer standards, has an accurate and up-to-date understanding of tenants’ homes, takes proactive steps to comply with health and safety legislation, provides an effective repairs service and offers a wide range of engagement opportunities for tenants – using the feedback to influence service delivery.

Davina Howes, Norwich’s Executive Director for Communities and Housing, said: “This is really good news for our residents and for the staff who work hard every day to support them. Achieving the highest rating shows that what we are doing is making a real difference to people’s homes and lives.

“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made while also acknowledging that this is not the end the journey. We’re listening to what people tell us and we’re determined to keep improving – fixing problems faster, continuing to tackle damp and mould, communicating more clearly and improving homes so they are safe, comfortable, affordable to run and a place that people call home.”

Elsewhere, Basildon Borough Council received a C4 grading from the RSH after it found very serious failings during an inspection.

The regulator found:

• Poor data assurance for legal health and safety requirements, and a lack of assurance that remedial actions are accurately recorded or actioned in a timely way
• A lack of accurate information on the quality of tenants’ homes, particularly the recording and monitoring of potential hazards
• Serious failings in its engagement with tenants and a lack of meaningful opportunities for them to scrutinise landlord services, policies and strategies. RSH also found the council does not have sufficient assurance of repairs performance, or effective oversight of its contractor.

In addition, the RSH found issues with the council’s Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) reporting, and no evidence of any analysis, learning or actions from the results to improve services.

Basildon Council did not self-refer to the regulator, after an external review in March 2025 found it was not delivering a range of outcomes in the consumer standards. Due to the seriousness – including the scale and breadth – of the issues identified during the inspection, the lack of self-referral was itself a very serious failing, the RSH said.

The council now needs to make fundamental changes so it can deliver improved outcomes for tenants. The council has been engaging constructively with RSH, but it still needs to develop a full understanding of current risks to tenants and the root causes of the failings. This will enable the council to develop its improvement plan and drive the fundamental changes needed to address these failings.

In a statement on its website, the council said: “Basildon Council acknowledges the findings of the recent Regulator of Social Housing assessment which has resulted in a C4 rating.

“We recognise that this rating reflects serious concerns about aspects of the Council’s performance and governance. As a Council, we fully accept the findings and the need for urgent and sustained improvements.

“We want to reassure residents that we have already taking decisive action, with a new leadership team leading our housing services who are experienced in working closely  with the regulators and at turning around failing services at speeds, we are working on an improvement plan that focuses on strengthening leadership, compliance and sustained outcomes for residents.

“We fully accept the regulator’s findings. This is not the standard we expect of ourselves, and we are sorry that we have fallen short.”

Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH, said: “We are working intensively with Basildon Council to make sure it understands the risks to tenants and takes prompt action to put things right – prioritising the highest risk issues.

“This case reinforces the importance of landlords self-referring to us when they find problems – either themselves or through external reviews. This is a fundamental requirement of our consumer standards. By flagging issues to us at an early stage, landlords can solve them more quickly and, in doing so, protect tenants and improve services.”

The RSH has also added YMCA Thames Gateway to its gradings under review list, while it investigates matters which may indicate serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard and the consumer standards.

Four other regulatory judgements have been published today.

Worthing Homes has been downgraded from G1 to G2 following an inspection. The housing association meets the RSH’s governance and financial viability requirements overall, but it needs to improve aspects of its governance to support continued compliance. This includes the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the information it holds, and work is already underway to strengthen these areas. It also received C2 and V2 grades.

One Vision Housing Limited has also been downgraded from G1 to G2. The provider meets the RSH’s governance requirements overall but needs to improve some aspects of its governance, including board reporting to support improved oversight of safety and quality outcomes for tenants, as well as aspects of its stress testing. It also received C1 and V1 grades.

Torus62 Limited has been upgraded from C2 to C1. The provider was inspected in May 2025 and given a C2 grading and has been delivering an improvement plan. As a result of this work, the RSH has concluded that Torus62 has strengthened its oversight of health and safety compliance and provided assurance that it is delivering an effective repairs service. Its G1 and V1 grades remain unchanged.

Steve Coffey, Group Chief Executive at Torus, said: “We are delighted to receive confirmation from the Regulator that our Consumer standards grading has been upgraded to C1. This is an excellent outcome for everyone associated in the Torus Group. I would like to thank colleagues for their exceptional efforts and for working tirelessly to improve our data and intelligence and to strengthen oversight of service quality for our customers.

“Achieving G1, V1 and C1 together demonstrates our continued commitment to strong governance, financial resilience and delivering high‑quality services for the communities we serve.”

Incommunities Limited was given G1, V2 and C2 grades following an inspection. The provider meets RSH’s governance and financial viability requirements. There are some weaknesses in delivering the consumer standards which it is working to improve.