Council apologises for series of failings in how social housing is managed in Northampton

A damning cabinet paper detailing a performance update on the council’s housing provider - Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) - has been published, ahead of the council’s cabinet meeting next week. Following the concerning discoveries, WNC referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing at the beginning of October “for potential non-compliance with regulatory standards”.

The paper shows occasions where NPH had presented incorrect data to the council at least twice, including regarding how many of its properties were classed as ‘non-decent’.

Both the council and the opposition party say this is “not good enough”. The council also says that “immediate action is underway to address the issues”.

Figures around ‘non-decent’ homes

In June this year, NPH reported to the council that 351 properties within the council stock did not meet the Decent Homes Standard.

However, NPH then informed the council that figure was “factually incorrect due to a data validation error”, whereby some properties had been counted multiple times and the actual number of properties that did not meet the decent homes standard was 258. However, this figure was only based on 2,800 properties which had been surveyed out of the 11,400 properties under NPH’s control.

Worryingly, the figure as of October 8, 2024, is 2,438, which is 21 percent of the total number of homes, with more than 3,000 properties yet to be surveyed.

The report adds: “While work is ongoing in parallel to address the issues identified and return properties to compliance, it is anticipated that the number of properties not meeting compliance standards will inevitably increase overall. The final position will not be known until the stock condition survey programme concludes at the end of December 2024.”

Figures on the fire risk assessment programme

Following another factually incorrect report to cabinet in September this year, NPH corrected the figures to show there were 180 overdue fire risk assessments and an additional 49 were set to expire in the next 90 days. 55 of the overdue assessments had expired in May and June.

NPH has also advised the council that the survey type used for fire risk assessments did not meet recommended regulatory standards. This means that the entire programme of fire risk assessments will need to be recompleted over the next 12 months.

‘Serious failings’

An independent review of compliance with the Safety and Quality Standard was commissioned by the council and reported to cabinet in September, due to issues emerging.

The review found “material issues with NPH’s policy, practice, and performance”.

The findings of the review led to the council to self-refer itself to the regulator at the beginning of October.

The paper adds: “At the time of publication, the council is awaiting the outcome of the Regulator’s Quality Assurance Panel which will review the council’s findings and data return.

“The review will result in a formal judgement by the regulator about our compliance with the consumer standards.

“The council is however of the view that the issues detailed within this report represent serious failings and that we will need to work with NPH to drive significant improvements in their performance.”

The council also says it expects to have to report to the regulator more frequently.

An outcome is expected in late November or early December.

Housing development issues

The independent review also found issues with the housing development strand of NPH.

The areas of concerns include, lack of the full range of skills needed to deliver large complex sites, a number of significant technical errors, a lack of openness and transparency and poor understanding of Homes England Affordable Homes Programme funding conditions.

A target was set to deliver 500 homes by March 31, 2025, however the review says there is a “reducing ability to meet the target”.

Steps for improvement

As of the end of September, the council stepped in to “gain better oversight and visibility around NPH’s operations and to support them to address the ongoing issues”.

The council has placed two additional senior directors into the organisation to work closely with the NPH management team and ensure completion of the priority action plan, as well as to put in place longer-term improvements. The NPH board has also been joined by two housing experts.

The council also says NPH is carrying out essential safety checks such as fire risk assessments. Tenants whose properties are affected by these issues will be contacted by NPH. Although specific dates are not yet set to complete the work, tenants have been assured that work is already under way and they will be contacted before the end of December.

The council says it is working closely with NPH and to a shared plan of action that is reviewed weekly to ensure progress is made.

WNC has also this week written to all tenants to update them.

A Housing Compliance Working Group has been established to monitor and resolve safety concerns and NPH has outsourced fire risk assessments to external providers to tackle the compliance gap.

Plans to address housing delivery in West Northamptonshire have also been shared, including new development initiatives aimed at providing quality housing for residents. WNC is taking forward the management of larger housing development projects.

Reaction

The leader of WNC has apologised for the failings and promised to be “open and transparent” about the regulator’s judgement.

Councillor Adam Brown said: “Our top priority is to ensure they [NPH] have carried out all the necessary safety checks and assured us of compliance to national standards. We are also supporting them in addressing their record-keeping issues, so that accurate and timely information can be provided to tenants about their properties in future and to avoid this happening again.

“Everyone deserves safe, high-quality housing and we recognise that this is not being delivered to some of our tenants. This is simply not good enough and we are sorry that standards have fallen short of what the council and tenants should expect.

“We are now waiting to hear the formal outcome of the regulator’s investigation and once we do we will be open and transparent about their judgement and what is being done to resolve this.”

The opposition group has released a statement calling the saga “shameful” and “very alarming”.

Leader of the Labour Group Councillor Wendy Randall, said: “These numerous incidents of inaccurate data being shared with the council, leading to misleading assumptions on the quality of our housing stock is very alarming.

“I’m very glad to see that WNC and NPH have made efforts to resolve this as quickly as possible.

“We can likely expect the regulator to accuse us of massive failings, which we need to accept and strive to turn around and ensure staff remain motivated. Adequate housing is a fundamental human right, to know that we and our provider have failed thousands in our care with not supplying this is shameful.

“I am pleased to see the leader of the council has apologised and agreed to be open and transparent.”

A full performance report will be discussed by WNC’s Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday (November 19).

NPH has been contacted for comment.

Read the full cabinet report here.