Tower Hamlets Council is taking action to improve housing management services and has acknowledged the judgement by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).
The Regulator inspected the council in February, following the council’s decision to self-refer in October 2024, which was taken to help improve services and meet all new consumer standards for social housing providers.
The council brought Tower Hamlets Homes (THH) in-house in November 2023 and conducted two external reviews to assess its position against new regulatory requirements. These reviews provided a deeper understanding of performance gaps and areas of improvement required to meet residents’ needs, as well as the new consumer standards.
In a proactive move and in the spirit of co-regulation, the council took the decision to self-refer and took a Regulatory Improvement Plan to Cabinet in November 2024 to show how improvements will be made, following similar moves by other local authorities. Cabinet also approved the establishment of a Housing Management Sub Committee to strengthen governance of the service.
We are committed to making sure residents’ homes are safe, there are no changes to tenancies and the way people access services remains the same. Ultimately, this was a positive step to improve the quality of services.
Lutfur Rahman, Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, said:
“It was clear to me that many residents were not being provided with the high quality and well-maintained homes they deserve, which is why I was determined to bring Tower Hamlets Homes in house after my election, to enable the Council to take charge of the situation. I also introduced a record £140 million investment to upgrade existing council homes, while also investing to build 4,000 new affordable homes.
“Following this decisive action to insource the service and the independent reviews we commissioned, we decided to self-refer to the Regulator of Social Housing.
“We have agreed a clear and well-resourced improvement plan, as the Regulator acknowledges, which is already making significant improvements. I thank the Regulator for their ongoing commitment to working with us as we continue to drive forward these changes as an urgent priority.”
Tower Hamlets Council Chief Executive Stephen Halsey, said:
“We are committed to providing our residents with good services and have moved quickly to change our housing service for the better.
“This grading has confirmed the issues we identified in our self-referral, and we are already taking steps to make improvements.
“We’re pleased that the Regulator has acknowledged our corporate commitment to putting this right. The inspection was a positive experience for the teams involved. It has brought services together and given us a clear path for improvement.”
The Regulator identified the following areas of improvement, but also noted examples of positive practice, including partnership working, strong community engagement and evidence of progress in complaint handling and compliance.
Since referring to the Regulator the Council has:
- Reduced overdue high risk Fire Safety actions by over 35%
- Reduced overdue high risk Water Safety actions by 80%
- Improved the level of non-Decent Homes
- Cleared overdue complaints
- Established a new governance structure to oversee the delivery of our improvement plan
- Improved performance across all Tenant Satisfaction Measures, including a 13% increase in Overall Tenant Satisfaction
The RSH has graded Tower Hamlets Council at C3, which means there are “serious failings” in assuring the regulator that it is meeting new consumer standards in social housing.
Over half of local authorities nationwide, who have been graded by the RSH, have received a C3. In London, this includes Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Hackney and Southwark.
Prior to the inspection, the council had made these improvements:
- A £140m investment of capital funding to address fire and building safety remedial works.
- Improvements across property and resident data, including a new system to manage our asset data.
- Achieved 100% compliance with Fire Risk Assessments across our homes.
- Appointed key staff to lead improvements in the management of our council homes, fire safety and complaints.
- Implemented programmes which have already improved our position in terms of outstanding Fire Safety actions and across Landlord Compliance.
- Established a new Housing Cabinet Sub-Committee to strengthen governance and ensure improvements are delivered on time.
In response to Grenfell, the Government introduced a range of legislation to ensure residents are safe in their homes, have a stronger voice and greater opportunity to hold their landlord to account. A suite of new and revised consumer standards came into force on 1 April 2024 which all providers of social housing must meet. Social housing providers are graded C1 to C4, with 1 being the highest and 4 the lowest.
Posted on Wednesday 30th April 2025