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Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C3 Our judgement is that there are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.	First grading	July 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Leicester City Council (Leicester CC) following an inspection completed in July 2025.  

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C3. 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, we have concluded that there are serious failings in Leicester CC delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the outcomes in the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for Leicester CC.

How we reached our judgement

We conducted an inspection of Leicester CC 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 Leicester CC’s Housing Scrutiny Commission meeting and a Tenant Scrutiny Panel meeting. We met with tenants, officers, and the councillor who is the portfolio holder for housing. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Leicester CC.  

Our regulatory judgement is based on analysis of all the relevant information obtained during the inspection as well as information received through routine regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C3 – July 2025 

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants, and to ensure that their tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). We identified serious failings in relation to this outcome. 

Through our inspection we found that while there is evidence of Leicester CC investing in its social housing via planned improvements and maintenance, it does not have up to date information on the condition of most of its homes that meets all four criteria of the DHS.

One of the criteria of the DHS is that homes must meet the current statutory minimum standard for housing. This means that homes should be free from category 1 hazards. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is the prescribed method for assessing such hazards, and stock condition surveys must incorporate HHSRS.   Leicester CC’s last comprehensive stock condition survey was undertaken in 2009 but did not include an assessment of HHSRS. Leicester CC is unable to evidence that its homes are free of category 1 hazards at an individual level. Given the limited up to date stock condition survey data that Leicester CC currently holds, we do not have assurance that Leicester CC has a sufficient understanding of the condition of its homes to deliver the relevant outcomes in the Safety and Quality Standard. Leicester CC reports that 0.5% of its homes do not meet the requirements of the DHS, however, this is based on the limited up to date information it holds about the condition of its homes. Leicester CC has physically inspected 27% of its homes for decency in the past five years and has plans to survey all its homes through a five-year rolling programme of stock condition surveys incorporating HHSRS. We will continue to engage with Leicester CC as it completes this work. 

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. We identified serious failings in relation to this outcome. In respect of electrical safety, at the time of the inspection, around 70% of Leicester CC’s homes had not had an electrical safety test. Until Leicester CC had implemented its current programme of undertaking electrical testing which began in 2025, it had no programme of cyclical electrical safety testing of domestic properties in place that covered the entire dwelling. Leicester CC is now working to a programme of electrical testing of all domestic properties on a five-year cycle and plans to complete all domestic electrical testing by 2028. We will continue to engage with Leicester CC as it completes all tests.

In respect of asbestos safety, we identified that Leicester CC has recently begun to resurvey all its communal areas for asbestos due to concerns about the accuracy of its data. At the time of the inspection, Leicester CC had surveyed around two-thirds of its communal areas and has plans to complete the remaining surveys by August 2025. Leicester CC provided assurance that it was meeting legal requirements in other areas of health and safety, including gas safety, smoke and carbon monoxide safety, fire safety, water safety and lift safety. During the inspection we found limited evidence of oversight of health and safety performance by councillors or tenants that comprehensively covered all areas of landlord health and safety checks, including safety monitoring performance and an overview of all remedial actions arising from health and safety checks.

Our inspection of Leicester CC identified that there are weaknesses in the provision of an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service. Leicester CC had identified the need to make improvements prior to our inspection, and we saw evidence of the action that Leicester CC has already taken, including several measures to reduce the number of overdue repairs and improvements relating to damp and mould. We will continue to engage with Leicester CC and will seek assurance that progress continues to be made to improve outcomes for tenants.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard requires landlords to work in partnership with appropriate local authority departments, the police and other relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. We saw evidence that Leicester CC deals effectively with ASB and hate incidents in line with its policy and procedures and in partnership with relevant organisations. We also have assurance that Leicester CC is working co-operatively with tenants, other public agencies and other landlords to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of shared spaces and increase wellbeing in communities. 

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Leicester CC is offering 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. Leicester CC’s mutual exchanges processes also meet the required outcomes of the Tenancy Standard.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard sets out the outcomes landlords must deliver about being open with tenants and treating them with fairness and respect so that tenants can access services, raise complaints, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account. Leicester CC has provided evidence that it understands the diverse needs of tenants and uses this information to determine the accessibility of its services.

We gained assurance that Leicester CC takes tenants’ views into account in its decision making and communicates how tenants’ views have been considered. Leicester CC has recently reviewed its approach to tenant engagement and scrutiny and has co-designed a new framework of tenant communication and engagement opportunities. This includes a newly formed tenant scrutiny panel made up of Leicester CC tenants to provide formal scrutiny on landlord services. Leicester CC has also identified that it needs to improve how it engages with underrepresented groups, which it plans to do through the implementation of its revised strategy. However, the new strategy has yet to be fully implemented, and the tenant scrutiny panel had only met twice at the time of the inspection; therefore, outcomes for tenants arising from the new strategy are yet to become evident. This will be an area that we will continue to monitor through our ongoing engagement with Leicester CC.

Leicester CC provided evidence of relevant and accessible information so tenants can use landlord services and understand what to expect from their landlord. However, there was limited regular performance information provided for tenants in relation to landlord services.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also requires landlords to ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. We saw limited evidence that Leicester CC was meeting this requirement, and our inspection identified that improvements are needed on the reporting and oversight of complaints performance, establishing the accessibility of complaints processes and formalising the reporting on learning from complaints received. Leicester CC had identified it needed to improve its complaints processes prior to our inspection and has an improvement plan in place. We will continue to engage with Leicester CC to monitor the progress and outcomes from the improvements it is making.

Leicester CC has been engaging constructively with us and has put in a place a programme to rectify these failings, including work to complete outstanding health and safety checks, improvements to its repairs and maintenance services, its understanding of the condition of its homes and its complaint handling processes. 

We are engaging with Leicester CC as it continues to address the issues set out in this judgement. Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek evidence which gives us the assurance that sufficient change and progress is being made, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement programme. Our priority will be that risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as Leicester CC seeks to resolve these issues. 

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Leicester CC owns 19,407 social housing homes. Most homes are under direct management by Leicester CC.

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 ÒÁÈËÖ±²¥ 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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard