Four landlords handed C3 grade over ‘serious failings’ as regulator issues first consumer ratings

London-based Octavia, which is currently in merger talks with 50,000-home landlord Abri, already has G3/V3 ratings with the regulator partly due to poor-quality financial data.

On its findings on the consumer standards, the RSH said there are “serious failings in the oversight, management, and delivery in several areas of Octavia’s landlord health and safety responsibilities”.

As a result, it had evidence Octavia that is not delivering the “required outcomes” of the Safety and Quality Standard.

It found that Octavia has 1,200 overdue fire safety remedial actions “categorised as either high or medium priority” across its 5,000 homes. The London Fire Brigade has issued notifications of fire safety deficiencies for 13 Octavia buildings since May last year, the RSH said. 

The group self-referred to the regulator after a serious fire at one of its properties in January and a wider review of its health and safety compliance, the regulator said.

In response, Kevin Bolt, interim chief executive at Octavia who was appointed in January, said: “The safety and well-being of our residents are our highest priority.

“Octavia recognises that it should have done more to meet the requirements of the Safety and Quality Standard and accepts the C3 grading received from the regulator today.”

“With the support of our proposed merger partner, Abri, Octavia has in recent months allocated substantial extra resources to improving our performance on health and safety, and are confident of delivering the changes that the regulator requires.”

On Bristol City Council, the regulator said that the authority could not provide evidence that it is meeting carbon monoxide safety requirements for more than 22,000 homes, which is around 85 per cent of its 26,700 properties. 

It also reported 1,900 open damp and mould cases, more than 16,000 overdue repairs and 3,000 overdue fire safety actions, the RSH said. 

The council, which self-referred to the regulator in April, also does not have up-to-date data about the condition of tenants’ homes, the regulator said.

Barry Parsons, chair of Bristol Council’s homes and housing delivery committee, said: “Our role as a social landlord is to ensure we’re providing people with safe and decent homes that are places of sanctuary, that nurture and protect people’s well-being. 

“It’s clear that we’re not hitting a high enough standard in this role and for that we apologise to all council tenants and those who live in our council-owned homes.” 

He added: “Our priority is focusing on any safety issues, which means addressing the backlog of some of the regular checks we must undertake as a landlord.”

Mr Parsons said the council is also carrying out a programme of repairs and refurbishment, while it is urgently addressing its record-keeping as it is “significantly below where it should be”. 

On Guildford Borough Council, the regulator found that the authority has around 1,700 homes without an up-to-date electrical condition report out of 5,200 total homes. The council also failed to provide evidence that it has completed around 1,300 fire safety actions, the judgement said. 

Guildford Council has also not collected tenant satisfaction measure data from its residents and had been “unable to explain the reasons” for not collecting the information, the RSH said. 

Julia McShane, leader of the council and lead councillor for housing, said that it “fully accepted” the findings. 

She added: “Since December 2023, we’ve taken urgent action to improve our service. We can evidence progress across all areas of compliance and building safety which includes a real-time compliance dashboard, recruitment of expert officers and procurement of building safety contracts.

“We’ve reviewed all electrical information data to confirm an accurate position of where we are and procured two short-term contractors to complete the certification work by July 2025. A fire risk validation exercise has confirmed there are no outstanding high-risk actions.”

For Sheffield City Council, the regulator highlighted that it has had around 10,000 outstanding repairs across its 38,500 homes.

Between January and April 2024, more than 90 per cent of disrepair cases were outstanding for extended periods. The RSH also found evidence that the council does not have an accurate record of the condition of tenants’ homes.

The council was previously found to have breached the Home Standard in January 2023 due to more than 800 gas safety checks being overdue.

Douglas Johnson, chair of Sheffield City Council’s housing committee, said the local authority appreciates that the latest news could be “concerning” for its tenants. 

He added: “We acknowledge that standards in our housing service in relation to gas safety and the number of outstanding repairs to be carried out on our properties have not been sufficient.

However, he said the council had been working with the regulator and implemented new policies and introduced new ways of working to raise standards. 

Mr Johnson added: “We will continue to invest in tenants’ homes and create neighbourhoods people are proud to call home.”