Decision

Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (00CH) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 April 2025

Published 30 April 2025

Applies to England

Our Judgement 

	Current 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 Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (Gateshead MBC) following an inspection completed in April 2025.  

This 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 Gateshead MBC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard, the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and, to a lesser extent, the Tenancy Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Gateshead MBC. 

How we reached our judgement 

We carried out an inspection of Gateshead MBC 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 consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard and the   Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. 

During the inspection we observed the Strategic Housing Board, the Resident Influence Panel and an Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting. We met with involved tenants, officers and councillors, including the leader of the council and the portfolio holder for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Gateshead MBC. 

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information received from Gateshead MBC through 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 and ensure that homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). During the inspection, we saw evidence that Gateshead MBC has an accurate and up to date understanding of its homes, largely based on physical assessment at individual property level and supplemented using a range of other relevant information sources. Plans are in place to ensure that all homes have been physically surveyed within appropriate timescales by the end of 2025, following which a rolling programme will be implemented. While Gateshead MBC had a number of homes reported as not meeting the DHS, it has costed plans in place to ensure all homes meet this standard by 2027 and we will continue to engage with the council to monitor progress. 

We have assurance that Gateshead MBC understands its health and safety responsibilities and has appropriate systems in place to manage these effectively. We saw evidence that overall, Gateshead MBC meets the legal requirements relating to the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and communal areas, managing risk, making effective use of specialist external assurance, and with demonstrable oversight from senior officers and councillors of health and safety reporting informing its approach. While Gateshead MBC has developed its approach to damp and mould, we observed that some weaknesses remain; performance reporting on damp and mould cases is limited, and while a more proactive approach is in the process of being established, this is at an early stage. Gateshead MBC recognises that further improvement is needed and has plans in place to address the remaining areas of weakness. Through our ongoing engagement, we will seek assurance that Gateshead MBC continues to make progress and that outcomes for tenants are improved with regards to damp and mould. 

Our inspection and engagement with Gateshead MBC demonstrated that there are weaknesses in the provision of an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service. Gateshead MBC has a backlog of repairs and there are issues with the timeliness of the repair and maintenance of empty homes. Gateshead MBC had identified these weaknesses prior to the inspection, and we saw evidence of a range of steps that have been taken in response, along with further plans to drive improvement. We will continue to engage with Gateshead MBC as it delivers these improvements and will seek assurance of improved outcomes for tenants in relation to repairs and maintenance services.  

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work with appropriate partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. We saw evidence that Gateshead MBC works effectively with relevant partners such as the police and local health services at both the strategic and operational level, dealing effectively with ASB and hate incidents in line with its policy and procedures, and supporting a range of initiatives aimed at deterring ASB. 

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Gateshead MBC is offering tenancies or terms of occupation which are compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its homes. Gateshead MBC operates a choice-based lettings system, and we saw evidence that its recently adopted allocations policy is kept under regular review to ensure that the changing needs of its tenants and prospective tenants are taken into account, and that homes are let fairly and transparently. Linked to our findings in relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard below, we discovered weaknesses in the accessibility of some tenancy management policies. 

Through our meeting observations and other inspection activities, we saw evidence that Gateshead MBC is delivering the required outcomes of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, but there are some weaknesses. The Standard includes the requirement for landlords to provide accessible and timely information so that tenants can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord, and hold their landlord to account. We noted a lack of timeliness in making some information available to tenants, impacting their ability to hold their landlord to account. We also noted weaknesses in the accessibility of some information for tenants. Gateshead MBC provides a range of opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise services, and we saw evidence that tenant feedback had directly and positively impacted service delivery, but improvement is needed in communicating how tenants’ views have been considered. However, we also saw evidence that Gateshead MBC had identified these issues prior to the inspection and that improvement plans were in development, in conjunction with tenants as part of a broader scrutiny review of communications. We will continue to monitor progress through our ongoing engagement.  

During the inspection, we gained assurance that Gateshead MBC is committed to treating tenants with fairness and respect. We found that Gateshead MBC has a general understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants and saw examples of service delivery tailored to known needs. However, improving the extent and quality of the information held about tenants’ diverse needs will enhance Gateshead MBC’s ability both to proactively tailor services to tenants’ individual needs, and robustly assess the delivery of fair and equitable outcomes for tenants, particularly around communication. At the time of the inspection, we noted that plans to collect tenant information were being implemented, and a process to keep tenant information up to date was in development.  

Landlords must also ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly. We found evidence that complaints responses were poor and there has been particular weakness in the timeliness of Gateshead MBC’s responses to complaints, often with significant backlogs. Gateshead MBC also needs to strengthen its approach to learning from complaints and using this information to continuously improve services. Gateshead MBC has taken steps to address this and has plans in place for further improvement, and through our ongoing engagement with the council we will seek assurance that change has been embedded and is delivering improved outcomes for tenants. 

Background to the judgement 

About the landlord 

Gateshead MBC is a metropolitan borough located in the north-east of England and owns around 18,000 social housing homes.  

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. 

Further information

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords