This page provides information about the most recent judgements made by the Regulator of Social Housing
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) regulates the social housing sector to ensure social landlords, such as Ipswich Borough Council, provide quality homes and services.
As part of the RSH’s new consumer standards, they carried out an inspection of our Housing Service through an on-site inspection that took place on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 February 2025. There are four Standards:
We received the results of the inspection on 30 July 2025 which is a C3 grading.
This means the RSH believes there are serious failings, and significant improvement is needed on three key things, specifically in relation to outcomes in the Regulator’s Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. These are a Housing Health and Safety Rating System Survey for every home, better data on tenant needs and better tenant engagement.
We accept the findings and that we have not completely met the new consumer standards. We are working with the Regulator to put things right quickly and have already made good progress on some of them.
Since Ipswich Borough Council were issued with the regulatory judgement, we are very pleased to update our tenants that we have made strong progress which we have detailed below.
The Regulator found lots of good practice and full compliance with the Neighbourhood & Community and Tenancy Standards. For example, the Regulator found a timely and responsive repairs service and the outcomes across health and safety compliance were good. The Regulator also highlighted that we dealt with anti-social behaviour effectively and the complaints process and learning was good.
Below are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) which we hope you will find useful in explaining more about the consumer standards, the results of the inspection and what we are doing to make sure we offer the best service possible to our tenants.
We will continue to update this page with the progress we have made in relation to the consumer standards inspection.
The Regulator of Social Housing is responsible for ensuring good quality social housing standards. As a social landlord, Ipswich Borough Council is expected to meet these standards, and the Regulator has powers to investigate and hold us to account.
You can find out more about the Regulator on the government’s website.
The Regulator of Social Housing has reviewed the role of Ipswich Borough Council as a landlord using new powers introduced on 1 April 2024. The new consumer standards apply to all registered providers of social housing which includes local authorities and are designed to protect tenants and improve the service they receive.
The Regulator undertakes inspections every four years so Ipswich Borough Council will have another inspection in relation to the consumer standards by no later than 2029.
We have been engaging with the Regulator of Social Housing providing information to them regarding our performance against the consumer standards.
Their inspection of the Council’s Housing Services took place between 11 and 13 February 2025. During the inspection, the Regulator observed meetings, met with tenants, officers, and councillors. They also reviewed a wide range of documents which we provided.
The Regulator has found areas where we need to improve in how we are delivering some of the outcomes of the consumer standards, specifically under the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.
As a result, Ipswich Borough Council has been given a C3 grade judgement.
The three main areas where we fell short of the expected standards are:
The Regulator has published a Regulatory Notice which details the findings which can be found on the government’s website.
We accept the Regulator’s findings and acknowledge that we have not fully met the new consumer standards in these areas.
We are committed to making the necessary improvements as quickly as possible by working together with tenants and the Regulator as quickly as possible.
HHSRS surveys are what we use to assess, identify and protect against any potential risks and hazards to health and safety in properties taking account of any individual household needs.
We recognise we need to improve the accuracy of how we record the condition of your home by ensuring HHSRS assessments are consistently included, in addition to the other surveys that we do. We will continue to work with the Regulator as we undertake surveys to ensure we effectively understand the quality of homes and how the data generated can inform our improvement programs.
We appointed a contractor named Rapleys to undertake these surveys which started in July 2025. Tenants receive more information when we write to arrange your survey, which is also known as a Home Improvement Survey.
Between July 2025 and end of January 2026 5,056 HHSRS assessments have been completed which is more than 60%.
Through this program, 44 Category 1 hazards were identified which have all been fully resolved. In addition, 111 Category 2 hazards were identified, with 90 resolved to date, and the remainder progressing through scheduled works.
The incidence of serious hazards remains low, with Category 1 hazards represent just 0.92% of all surveys completed.
Category 2 hazards account for 2.33%, demonstrating that the majority of surveyed homes meet expected standards with only minor issues identified.
Overall, the results indicate that 99.08% of our homes surveyed currently meet the Decent Home Standard.
We are very happy to say that the above program remains on track for completion by the end of July 2026, significantly strengthening the safety and condition of our tenants homes. Repairs performance has also improved, with 93% of repairs completed within target timescales and a significant reduction in the repairs backlog, giving tenants a faster, more reliable services
We need to improve the data we hold about tenants so that we have a better understanding of their diverse needs. This is important so that we can deliver fair and equitable services.
We worked with tenant engagement experts Accuity, who undertook a tenant survey on our behalf gaining 3215 completed surveys between May and August 2025 a 42% response rate.
We are working to reach and gain data from as many of the 58% non-respondents as possible. It is anticipated to take 6-12 months. this will include a culture of Every Contact Counts across the Housing Services to routinely update tenant data during interactions. Staff training, system guidance, system adaptation and reporting tools have, and continue to be developed.
Through the tenant data that we gain and continue to update we will identify ways which we can shape, design and deliver services meeting tenants needs. For example, identifying tenants that need support when we visit their homes, if they need a longer time to answer the door when we call, or if key information needs to be translated for them.
We will work with tenants to make sure we regularly capture data to ensure we consistently provide a range of accessible information which includes digital and non-digital channels. To learn more about our approach to providing services we set out what you can expect through our Local Standards. More information can be found in our Local Standards document.
We understand how meaningful tenant engagement can make a positive difference in how we deliver our services, and we recognise that we are not currently using tenant engagement enough. We have a Tenant Engagement Strategy in place and will be working on this further to ensure tenants are involved in scrutinising our performance and influence how our services are delivered. This will be achieved through our Choices for Voices, a menu of opportunities to get involved in a range of different ways. More information about these opportunities can be found on Tenant Engagement.
Working together with Tpas, who are England’s leading tenant engagement experts to review our current approach and to advise us what more we can do to ensure tenants have meaningful opportunities to engage and be involved.
This work has involved volunteer members from our Tenant Engagement Panel alongside Council Officers, Managers, Repairs team and Councillors. Together these have all helped design an action plan with priorities to improve our Tenant Engagement.
We continue to create with volunteer tenants leading to the introduction of refreshed Codes of Conduct and Terms of reference around how we work with volunteer tenants. We have recruited new volunteer tenants and provided training to support our volunteer's input. We are really pleased to have started a Tenant Resident reader program, initiated a Scrutiny & Complaints Panel and commenced our Stop Social Housing Stigma Campaign.
Estate activity and engagement continues through our Walkabout and Talkabout program which can be found on Tenant Engagement including accessible drop-ins, and more frequent tenant newsletters.
These activities have led to cleaner communal areas, better estate level oversight, and more opportunities for tenants to shape services. Visible actions such as improved bin-store arrangements, community clean-ups, and strengthened ASB case management are already delivering positive outcomes, with the latest tenant satisfaction for ASB case management being 70% through the tenant satisfaction measures.
We also recognise that further improvement is needed in the reporting of complaint handling for engaged tenants. We will be reviewing how we communicate our complaints process to ensure it is more open and transparent.
Yes, there were a number of areas where the Regulator was satisfied with our services. This includes:
Yes, we collect data and report annually on our performance using a set of measures developed by the RSH called Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).
Our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (Q3 2025/26) also show continued improvements in areas such as repairs, safety, communal area and complaint handling, reflecting the impact of our changes. Fire-safety improvement works are also starting across sheltered schemes from January 2026. Further information can be found on Tenant Satisfaction Measures
We will continue updating tenants as further progress is made. Our focus remains clear:
delivering safer homes, better services, and a stronger tenant voice across all area of our housing work.
We will keep tenants regularly updated on the progress. Where possible we will use email and text. We will also write to tenants by letter and provide information on our website – www.ipswich.gov.uk
Yes, there are already a number of ways tenants can share their views and concerns. You can contact your local Housing Officer or any member of the Housing team. You can provide feedback by attending a future drop in event organised by our Resident Engagement team and/or through our quarterly Tenant Satisfaction Surveys. You can also get involved through our Choices for Voices menu of opportunities as mentioned above.
If you have a general enquiry, or would like to submit general feedback, a compliment or a complaint, please visit Contact us Online.
In the meantime, if you have a question or concern about the report’s findings, you can call us on 01473 432000 or visit the Contact us Online.
