Regulatory judgments
Find out about inspection reports, regulatory judgements about the council as a landlord and our response.
Regulator of Social Housing
All social housing providers are controlled and maintained by the Regulator of Social Housing.
The regulator started a new way of inspecting landlords in April 2024.
Our recent assessment
Following an inspection in winter last year (2025), the Regulator of Social Housing has published a report of our housing services as part of its national programme. The inspection focused on the four standards set out above and involved reviewing our systems and records as well as observing several key meetings.
The regulator also met with managing partners, tenants, officers, councillors and the independent chair of the Homes and Estates Safety Board.
Following this inspection, the regulator issued a C3 judgement, meaning that despite meeting several of the required standards, the council is not fully meeting all standards and needs to make some improvements.
What this means
The regulator found serious weaknesses in how up to date surveys of our homes are and, in the confidence we have about the quality and consistency of some safety and compliance information that we hold. These are serious findings that we fully accept.
The report recognises the council’s awareness of issues and plans in place during the inspection to speed up our survey programme, address audit recommendations and strengthen our systems through external expert review.
The report also recognised that the council meets many aspects of the standards with strong practice, including fair lettings, a good quality repairs service, effective handling of anti-social behaviour, good tenancy management services, using resident feedback to drive improvement and a culture where tenants are treated with respect. It did not identify widespread failures in day-to-day services.
Our response
We are stepping up the work we are already doing to address the finding. This includes surveying homes more quickly, completing lift repairs more quickly, and improving our systems for holding safety data records and gaining expert appraisals. Senior leaders are directly responsible for making sure improvements are delivered, and we are working closely with the regulator as this happens.
How we will improve for our tenants
- We will speed up the programme to survey homes, so we have evidenced and up to date understanding of their condition and clear records.
- We will strengthen the way that we report safety and compliance information and look for additional external reviews of this from health and safety experts.
- We will improve our oversight of our service and the performance of our contractors.
- We will come up with a clear plan to address any outstanding non critical safety works including lift repairs.
- We will continue to listen to tenants and keep residents informed about what is changing and what it means for them. Our focus is on making sure homes are safe, well maintained, and supported by stronger systems in the future.
- We always welcome independent scrutiny and this report helps us strengthen our services. We take safety matters seriously and will act on them as a priority. We are already taking action to strengthen assurance and oversight.
These findings are not a reflection of our staff’s work and dedication, but it is important that we recognise the need to strengthen our current stock knowledge and systems, data and assurance.
You can read the full report here: Regulator of Social Housing's view of how well London Borough of Islington is meeting regulatory standards
The Housing Ombudsman
When residents living in council and housing association homes are not satisfied with the outcome of a complaint to their landlord, they can get help from the Housing Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will investigate their complaint.
We will publish inspection reports and regulatory judgements about the council as a landlord and our response. We will also share the Housing Ombudsman's investigation into systematic failure on this page when it is ready.
Landlord Performance Report
Read the Landlord Performance Report for Islington Council 2023/24 (PDF)
The Governing Body statement in response to the Housing Ombudsman’s Annual Landlord Report 2023/24
Islington Council values resident feedback, which we see as an essential part of our commitment to delivering good quality services to those we serve. We therefore welcome the publication of the Housing Ombudsman’s 2023/2024 Annual Landlord Report for Islington in conjunction with their special investigation report published in October 2023 (see below) and appreciate the opportunity to reflect on our performance and drive improvement.
Over the past year, we have significantly enhanced the way we manage our services, and our comprehensive 87-point action plan has been a critical step in this journey. We have also implemented a number of key initiatives to improve our complaints handling and overall resident services. These include:
- Enhanced governance and reporting – We have strengthened ongoing oversight to ensure continuous improvement.
- Comprehensive Complaint Improvement Plan – A dedicated plan to refine complaints handling across the entire Council.
- Complaints Board – Introducing additional governance to ensure robust implementation of improvement actions.
- New complaints management system – Enhancing our ability to efficiently track, manage, and analyse complaints.
- Improved local complaint handling – We have streamlined our housing complaint teams into a single unit, increasing staffing levels to better address resident concerns and ensure quality interaction with residents throughout the complaints process.
- Training and development – All housing staff and managers are now trained in effective complaints resolution, with service leads actively involved in auditing quality. Communications training has also been rolled out to all frontline staff to improve customer care and empathy. In addition, managers undertook the Housing Ombudsman Service training on their spotlight reports into Damp and Mould, and Knowledge and Information Management.
- Setting out our approach to supporting residents – Introduction of our Fair, Inclusive and Accessible Service Commitment for Housing Services, setting out how we support residents through our flexible approach to service delivery.
- Damp and Mould Action Plan – A dedicated task force now leads efforts to tackle damp and mould issues in homes. Our repairs policy has been revised to embed our new approach to tackling damp and mould.
- Revised anti-social behaviour approach – With new policies and improved case-working to tackle anti-social behaviour and foster a good neighbourhood environment.
- Redesigned tenancy service – A renewed focus on placing residents at the heart of service delivery, with accountability embedded through a patch-based approach.
We remain dedicated to ensuring that every resident in Islington receives the best possible service, with their concerns addressed swiftly, effectively, and with care. While we are encouraged by the progress we have made so far, we also acknowledge that there is still more to be done.
We will continue to learn, adapt, and evolve in response to the changing needs of our residents, always striving to provide services that reflect the highest standards of quality and responsiveness.
Signed by:
Councillor Diarmaid Ward - Executive Member for Finance and Performance
Councillor John Woolf - Executive Member for Homes and Neighbourhoods