A detailed improvement plan to help to improve housing services and North Yorkshire Council’s work as a landlord has been drawn up.
In its first regulatory judgement from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) the council received a grade C3 in relation to its work on consumer standards, with “significant improvement” needed.
It found that the authority is not compliant with the Consumer Standards for social housing, which were enhanced in April this year following the introduction of the new Social Housing (Regulation) Act.
The council accepts this judgement and is working towards becoming compliant.
It referred itself to the RSH earlier this year highlighting areas of non-compliance as a landlord since it was established as a unitary authority in April 2023.
Since then, the service has been restructured, adopted a new Housing Revenue Account Business Plan and has been working hard on the implementation of a detailed improvement plan aimed at improving the quality of services for tenants.
Bringing eight councils under one umbrella, three of which had housing stock, has brought about many challenges. While compliant in several areas of activity, the council recognises that work needs to be done to meet all elements of the act and implemented the referral.
That referral has resulted in the RSH praising the council for its “transparent approach” and that it is working closely with the authority to address the issues in the housing service.
The issues included a lack of reliable information about the condition of homes, a failure to meet some aspects of health and safety requirements, and a lack of ways in which tenants can get involved in the service.
In its judgement, the RSH said that North Yorkshire Council is “engaging proactively and constructively” with them and has “acted transparently” by making a detailed self-referral and keeping tenants updated.
It said it recognised the challenges the council has faced with a significant reorganisation and that it has pinpointed the need to consolidate systems and information, and implement new policies and processes, adding that the council is taking steps to address the issues identified and has developed a detailed improvement plan.
It said the council:
- Has demonstrated that it is failing to meet some legal requirements for health and safety.
- Has provided details of its plans to complete electrical safety inspections of all homes and how they will be prioritised.
- Is re-assessing fire safety in its homes and how it will mitigate risks.
- Has reviewed its approach to water safety.
- Is developing a new tenant involvement strategy.
North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director for community development, Nic Harne, said:
Our improvement plan gives us the chance to provide the best services and quality of housing for our residents, and a unified housing service for our tenants.
We have fully restructured the service and have improvement plans in place. The safety and quality of our homes is our priority, and we encourage any tenants with concerns about their homes to contact us directly.
North Yorkshire Council is the landlord for almost 8,500 social housing properties in the county in the former district areas of Harrogate, Richmondshire and Selby.
