Complaints about social housing in Northampton 'skyrocket' since damning report, says councillor

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) found that its social housing provider, Northamptonshire Partnership Homes (NPH), provided incorrect data on the number of non-decent homes in its stock and outstanding fire risk assessments. An independent review commissioned also concluded that there are material issues with NPH’s policy, practice, and performance in relation to safety and quality.

Conservative councillor for Billing and Rectory Farm, James Hill, told the cabinet that his ward has one of the highest concentrations of NPH housing in West Northants and that the number of concerns raised around social housing in his ward had “skyrocketed” since the failings were uncovered.

The council said it had written to all tenants of the 11,500 homes it owns to update them on the issues, but stressed that the majority of NPH properties were not affected as they met the standards. The latest data suggests the known number of non-decent homes sits at around 20 percent of NPH’s social housing stock, but there are still thousands more homes yet to be surveyed.

Cllr Hill said: “Myself and fellow ward councillors have been inundated with casework, many of which highlight these same systematic issues. What is abundantly clear is that there are significant flaws in the processes for reporting and recording issues. This is a recurring theme in the cases that I have handled.

“The problems are frequently mis-recorded or even ignored altogether. Centralising the reporting mechanism should be a straightforward fix, in my opinion, and go a long way in making sure that issues are logged and tracked and resolved in a timely and transparent manner.

“We need swift and meaningful changes that directly impact tenants’ lives. NPH must prioritise restoring regulatory compliance, improving service delivery and rebuilding trust with its residents.”

Leader of WNC, Councillor Adam Brown told the meeting: “Immediate steps have been taken to address these failings. Make no mistake these are serious shortcomings and we also seriously aggrieve that data and information provided to WNC by NPH in the past appears to have given an inaccurate impression of the true level of compliance.

“When we’re taking such a fundamental review of how the organisation’s operating then I think what we have to prioritise is tenants’ safety, the condition of the properties.

“I would like to reiterate our apology to residents for both the failings we have identified and the worry and the stress that will have been caused by these revelations. The council will consider every option available to correct this situation - up to and including bringing services under the direct control of the council.”

He said that steps had already been taken to place additional senior directors within NPH, appoint housing experts to the board to oversee improvements and begin an independent review to address broader housing concerns. When asked if staffing issues had contributed to the misreporting, the Leader said there was no indication it was down to staff levels or work pressures.

‘Every single person on our housing register has been let down’

Councillor Rosie Humphreys (Braunston and Crick, Lib Dem) reflected: “Clearly, the new arrangements implemented when WNC was first formed to monitor NPH were insufficient to say the least. This council, since its inception, has had a number of seismic reputational hits and it’s extremely disheartening to be reading from another one.

“Far more serious than the reputational impact is the impact of those in desperate need of housing in our area. Every single person on our housing register has been let down.”

A self-referral to the Social Housing Regulator has been made by WNC. Possible outcomes could include an instruction to terminate the arrangements with NPH and bring services back in-house, an enforcement notice, a planned inspection notice, or a formal judgment and improvement action plan.

The outcomes of the Regulator’s review won’t be released until November 27. The council has said it is expects the Regulator to find “serious failings”.

WNC has also announced that it will be taking forward the management of housing projects from its social housing provider as competency issues, technical errors and a lack of openness and transparency were found within NPH. Cllr Brown said he hopes this will “streamline” processes and align with strategic housing goals.