By Alistair McIntosh, HQN CEO

Holidays are coming. It’s time to crank the handle and get those reports off the desk. Well done to the RSH for sending out 20 – yes, 20 – reports this week. The only question is, can I get this blog written and still make the Jet2 gate? Hold my hand!

As is usual, I’ll concentrate on the C ratings. Let’s remind ourselves what the RSH wants to see in place:

• Strong systems to ensure the health and safety of tenants in homes and communal areas
• Good-quality data on stock condition that drives investment
• Compliance with Decent Homes Standard
• Effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements
• A wide range of opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies and services (with examples of practical impact)
• Tenants getting the right sort of performance information so they can scrutinise services
• The landlord is gathering data on the diverse needs of tenants and using this to shape/tailor services
• Complaints are dealt with fairly, promptly and effectively
• Learning from complaints is leading to better services and mistakes not being repeated
• Landlord is working with local partners to deter and tackle ASB and hate incidents
• Approach to lettings and allocation is fair and transparent – with support to sustain tenancies
• Information on aids and adaptations readily available with adaptations completed on time.

All the landlords that got C1 this week were there or thereabouts on these criteria. So, congratulations to bpha, Derby City Council, Eastlight Community Homes, Folkestone and Hythe Council, Magenta Living and Vico Homes. HQN saw firsthand how hard some of you were working. Without betraying any confidences (some of you have come a long way. You know who you are) great job!

The RSH believes that all roads lead back to governance. It’s the root cause of delivery – good or bad. The RSH gives associations a G rating, but they cannot do the same for councils. How do they get round this?

Inspectors attend the same sorts of meetings at councils that they do at associations. At Derby they observed the ALMO board, operational committee and customer voice group, as well as meeting the leader of the council, cabinet member and senior officers. Inspectors commented favourably on the respectful, fair and positive culture towards tenants shown by both officers and councillors.

Folkestone and Hythe doesn’t have an ALMO but the inspectors met a similar range of tenants, officers and councillors. The impact of their Strategic Tenant Advisory Panel and Tenant Scrutiny Panel in improving services drew praise from the RSH team.

Councils cannot score C1 without strong governance of the housing service.

C1 doesn’t always mean perfection. But to get that score you must convince the RSH that you’re knocking on the door. Some of the C1s needed to show how they will get to 100% stock survey (from 90%), bring the last 5% up to the Decent Homes Standard and keep gathering, and using, data on tenants.

Eastlight got C2 last year. But now they’re up to C1 thanks to better performance reporting and embedding improvements to the repairs service. The acting CEO says that: “Listening and acting on tenant feedback has been key.”

This week’s C2s are: Bassetlaw District Council; Durham Aged Mineworkers’ Association; East Riding of Yorkshire; English Rural Housing Association; Local Space, Newark and Sherwood District Council; South Kesteven District Council; and Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Again, we know some of these landlords well and they’re making rapid progress. C1 beckons if they stick to the plan.

What are the sorts of things that are keeping these landlords off the top spot for now:

• Weaknesses in data quality on stock condition and levels of Decency
• Inaccurate data on health and safety compliance
• Limited councillor oversight of investment and compliance
• Repairs services not meeting targets (including on DMC) and backlogs
• Insufficient data on diverse needs of tenants thus insufficient tailoring/shaping
• Little evidence of meaningful tenant involvement
• Weaknesses in recording complaints and learning from these
• Limited performance reporting on ASB and tenancy sustainment
• Not doing enough to explain health and safety arrangements to tenants in blocks owned by third parties.

To get to C2 the positives must strongly outweigh the negatives. And there are some nuggets of really good practice here, for example:

• Bassetlaw is delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs service with good levels of satisfaction
• Durham Aged Mineworkers’ Association treats its tenants with fairness and respect
• East Riding Council has an accurate and up-to-date understanding of stock condition
• English Rural is learning from complaints to drive continuous improvements
• At Local Space tenants have meaningful opportunities to scrutinise services and influence decisions
• At Newark and Sherwood senior leaders are visible and accessible to tenants
• South Kesteven deals with complaints fairly, effectively and promptly
• Stoke-on-Trent is working effectively to tackle ASB with positive outcomes for tenants.

But the list we show above highlights the sorts of defects that can put C1 just out of reach for now. A couple of these can be enough to go down to C2. Many of them, and it’s C3 or worse.

All the C2 landlords are engaging with the RSH to move on up. Some of the time it’s simply a case of waiting for planned changes to bed in.

Right, that’s it. I’m off. Time for a Spoon’s pint!