Brentwood Borough Council (22UD) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 April 2025
Published 30 April 2025
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Our Judgement
| Grade/judgement | Change | Date of assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer | C2 Our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed. |
First grading | April 2025 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Brentwood Borough Council (Brentwood BC) following an inspection completed in April 2025.
The regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C2. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.
Summary of the decision
From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection, our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in Brentwood BC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the outcomes in our Neighbourhood and Community Standard, the Tenancy Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Brentwood BC.
How we reached our judgement
We carried out an inspection of Brentwood BC to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. We considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.
During the inspection we observed meetings of the Housing, Health and Community Committee and the Scrutiny, Performance and Standards Committee as well as the Resident Repairs Panel. We met with involved tenants, officers, the leader of the council, and chair and vice-chair of the Housing, Health and Community Committee. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Brentwood BC.
Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information supplied by Brentwood BC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.
Summary of findings
Consumer – C2 – April 2025
The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes at an individual property level based on a physical assessment of all homes. In addition, landlords should ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard. Brentwood BC has detailed records at an individual property level on the condition of 90% of its homes and is reporting low levels of non-decency based on this data. Brentwood BC is monitoring the progress of its ongoing stock condition survey programme and has clear plans to ensure that physical surveys of the condition of all its homes have been undertaken.
The Safety and Quality Standard also requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. Brentwood BC provided evidence to show that it has appropriate systems in place to manage its health and safety responsibilities. Risks and actions are identified and completed within reasonable timescales and performance is actively monitored by senior officers and councillors, although improvement is needed in the reporting and oversight of remedial actions. Brentwood BC has a proactive approach to identifying and responding to cases of damp and mould in its homes.
The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which they are responsible. Brentwood BC is overall delivering its repairs in a timely manner. There is a relatively low level of tenant satisfaction with the repairs service, and Brentwood BC recognises that it needs to improve the tenant experience. We saw evidence of Brentwood BC taking steps to work with contractors to drive improvements. We will continue to engage with Brentwood BC in relation to its repairs service and will seek assurance that changes will be embedded to improve outcomes for tenants.
The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with relevant organisations to promote positive outcomes for tenants. We saw evidence that Brentwood BC works in partnership with the police and other relevant organisations to seek to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the neighbourhoods where it provides homes. Tenants can report ASB online or over the telephone and Brentwood BC is reviewing its ASB policy to ensure this remains up to date. We noted weaknesses in Brentwood BC’s ability to demonstrate outcomes against the Neighbourhood and Community Standard both at a strategic partnership level and at a performance monitoring and scrutiny level. Brentwood BC is aware of these weaknesses and has plans in place to address them.
In relation to the Tenancy Standard, Brentwood BC’s housing allocations policy offers tenancies or terms of occupation that are compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock. However, Brentwood BC needs to do more to ensure that it has effective monitoring and oversight in place to achieve the outcomes of this standard.
The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to provide accessible information so tenants can understand what to expect from their landlord and hold them to account. It also requires landlords to take tenants’ views into account when making decisions about the delivery of landlord services. We did not identify any concerns to suggest that tenants are treated with a lack of fairness and respect through our inspection. Brentwood BC has a limited understanding of the needs of its tenants, and this restricts its ability to take action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes. Improving the extent and quality of the information Brentwood BC holds about the needs of its tenants will enhance its ability to monitor outcomes. This is an acknowledged area for improvement for Brentwood BC.
Brentwood BC offers a range of appropriate ways for tenants to get involved and has recently established Tenant Panels, which are growing in maturity, across some service delivery areas. However, Brentwood BC does not promote engagement opportunities widely and this is linked to some weaknesses in tenant communications. Brentwood BC produce a housing bulletin for tenants that is received by only a small number of tenants and there is no regular social media activity. We also saw limited capacity to assist tenants to implement tenant-led activities. Our engagement with Brentwood BC did give us assurance there is a genuine commitment to deliver more tenant-led scrutiny, and we will work with Brentwood BC to improve outcomes in this area.
Brentwood BC make a range of information available for tenants on the website covering the main policy areas and tenant responsibilities. This is in the process of being reviewed to improve accessibility. There is limited performance reporting that is easily available to tenants, and this makes it difficult for tenants to build a picture of how their landlord is performing. We did note a comprehensive approach to Safety and Quality Standard compliance reporting through to the Housing, Health and Community Committee where we observed challenging and informed discussions.
Brentwood BC’s approach to complaints handling is clear and in line with the requirements of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Brentwood BC acknowledges that it needs to improve tenant satisfaction with the way it handles complaints, embeds systematic learning from complaints as well as increasing tenant involvement in identifying service improvements.
Brentwood BC has demonstrated self-awareness throughout the inspection. It has an improvement plan and governance structure in place which has been operating for around six months. We noted a strong commitment at member and corporate senior leadership level to embed this improvement framework. We will continue to work with Brentwood BC to seek assurance that this leads to meaningful outcomes for tenants.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
Brentwood BC is in the south west of the county of Essex. The council owns around 2,400 social housing homes including general needs and sheltered housing.
Our role and regulatory approach
We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.
We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations).
We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment.
We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page.
We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. In Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our new inspections programme from 1 April 2024. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes.
The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards.
For more information about our approach to regulation, please see Regulating the standards.