Decision details

Having complied with paragraph 15 of the Council’s Access to Information Procedure Rules.

(i)  That the findings of the Social Housing Regulator and the C3 grading are accepted in full.

(ii)  That the commitment to improving the performance of the Housing Landlord function is agreed as priority for the Council.

(iii)   That the Improvement Plan is agreed as the mechanism to drive performance improvement and support the improvement requirements of the Social Housing Regulator.

(iv)  That the Housing Advisory Board is established to oversee the Improvement Plan and ensure regular performance reports to Cabinet.

(v)  That the concerns and comments of Scrutiny are accepted and there are regular performance reports.

1  This report is submitted for consideration as a General Exception under paragraph 15/16 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules in Part 4 of the City Council’s Constitution, notice having been given to the Chair of the relevant Scrutiny Panel and the Public.

2  The Social Housing Regulator published its Report on the Housing Landlord Service in November 2024 and confirmed that there would be the requirement for Southampton City Council to be subject to continued oversight to drive the improvements from a C3 rating, to a C2 level. This is the sanction that the regulator has applied following the C3 rating. These arrangements were confirmed in January 2025 and it is considered urgent to confirm the Councils’ response to the report, the rating and the sanction applied. The Regulator findings and the developing improvement plan have been subject to Scrutiny ahead of this Cabinet Report.

The Social Housing Regulator inspection report, rating and sanction are those of the Regulator and the only options are to accept or reject.

The review of service performance that was undertaken before the inspection and an initial improvement plan developed.

It is already recognised by Cabinet that the Landlord service needed to make significant improvements.

The existing plans and those of the Regulator align and the report, rating and sanctions are already accepted in principle.