Arun District Council failing consumer standards

Arun District Council has received a failing grade for consumer standards in housing from the regulator.

The rating was published in a report on Wednesday, August 27, by the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) following an inspection conducted over August of the council’s housing service.

The council received a C4 rating, the lowest possible rating for consumer standards of a social housing landlord, with C1 being the highest.

The RSH concluded there are ‘serious failings’ by the council to deliver on its required consumer standards, and that this is having a ‘significant impact’ on outcomes for council tenants, adding ‘fundamental changes’ are required to improve the housing service.

The regulator said although the council showed a ‘willingness’ to address the failings, the council had not shown them anything to ‘sufficiently assure’ them the council understood the potential risk to its tenants or its ability to resolve their issues.

This included the ability to take ‘prompt action to gain assurance that tenants are safe’.

The regulator said it would not be pursuing this judgement with its enforcement powers at this stage but will be keeping the council ‘under review’ until its failings are resolved.

They said the council is failing in all four consumer standards measures; Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

The RSH said there were ‘very serious failings’ with the Safety and Quality standard, including in some areas a failure to meet legal health and safety requirements.

This included fire safety and smoke detection, a lack of accurate information on stock quality, repairs not being completed on time, and homes not meeting the Decent Homes Standard.

The RSH said there were around 1,000 overdue fire risk remedial actions at the time of inspection, of which 700 were categorised as high or very high risk as well as overdue for 12 months.

It said ADC referred the regulator to the fire safety issues at inspection start, saying it has no approved plans in place to address the overdue fire remedial actions and is unable to evidence how it is mitigating fire safety risks.

ADC also told the regulator that half of its housing stock does not have smoke detectors, with plans to remedy this by May 2027.

The regulator said there were around 2,500 open and overdue repair cases – with over 1,500 of those overdue by more than three months.

They said ADC was unable to provide assurance of the ‘quality and accuracy’ of the information submitted to them, saying the council acknowledged it requires ‘significant improvement’ in this area.

The RSH said the council reported around 10 per cent of its homes being ‘non-decent’, or not meeting the decent homes standard, with the regulator noting, ‘given weaknesses in its information, we lack assurance that this figure is accurate’.

It said although ADC had up to date information on the condition of 75 per cent of its roughly 3,500 homes, the regulator could not be sure that all the ‘hazards’ arising, due to regulated assessments carried out during information gathering, were dealt with in time.

On the Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard the regulator said it found ‘a lack of meaningful opportunities for tenants to scrutinise performance and influence services’.

It also said the council had ‘limited’ ways of keeping its tenant information up to date, and provided no evidence it was using the information it did have to ‘ensure equitable outcomes for tenants’.

On the Neighbourhood and Community standard, the council had not shown evidence of addressing incidents of hate and anti-social behaviour with prompt and appropriate action, with the RSH saying this was another ‘serious failure’.

On the Tenancy Standard, the regulator said it found ‘no evidence’ that ADC was, ‘offering tenancies or terms of occupation that were compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock.’

The regulator said in its conclusion: “Arun DC has been engaging constructively with us. It understands the issues it needs to address and is taking action to rectify the very serious failures identified. 

“We expect Arun DC to develop a comprehensive plan that will drive fundamental change across all of the areas identified, and to share that with tenants. 

“Our engagement will be intensive, and we will seek assurance that Arun DC is making sufficient change and progress, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its improvement programme. 

“Our priority will be that risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated.”

Two local Conservative MPs, Andrew Griffith for Arundel and South Downs and Alison Griffiths for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, issued a joint statement on the findings, calling it an ‘appalling’ assessment of one of the council’s ‘most primary functions’.

Both criticised the Liberal Democrat led council, stating they would be writing to the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Mathew Pennycook MP, to call for the council to be placed into special measures.

Andrew Griffith MP said: “Many social housing tenants visit my weekly surgeries with concerns about Arun District Council housing. 

“This verdict from the Regulator is some justice for the thousands of tenants who are suffering – it’s time this failing council was put into special measures.”

Alison Griffiths MP said: “No council can expect to continue running as a landlord when it cannot meet the most basic of safety standards. It cannot be that hard to provide smoke detectors to properties to protect residents. 

“The Leader of the Council has failed to scrutinise this part of the council’s service and should be deeply ashamed of this outcome.”

Opposition Leader at ADC, Shaun Gunner (Con, Rustington East) called for the resignation of Housing and Wellbeing committee chair, Carol Birch (Green, Arundel and Walberton), for ‘presiding over the failure’.

An Arun District Council spokesperson told the LDRS: “Arun District Council acknowledges the recent regulatory judgement issued by the Regulator of Social Housing following their inspection of our housing service. 

“The outcome – a C4 rating – is not the result we had hoped for, and we are treating this matter with the seriousness it deserves.

“We are fully committed to addressing all areas highlighted in the judgement. Rectifying these issues is our top priority, and we are taking immediate steps to ensure our tenants are safe and living in satisfactory housing conditions.

“We are developing a comprehensive plan to drive further fundamental change across all of the identified areas, with dedicated people and financial resources. This will be shared with both the Regulator, elected members and with tenants.

“While the judgement is deeply disappointing, it presents a clear opportunity for us to continue to improve and deliver better outcomes for our tenants. Our staff are dedicated, hard-working professionals who will give their full commitment to this important work. 

“We remain committed to transparency, accountability, and above all, the safety and wellbeing of our tenants.”

Since April 1, 2024, the RSH has been publishing In Depth Assessment of social housing landlords with over 1000 homes.

The first landlord to fail the consumer standards assessment in October last year, the London Borough of Newham, agreed to £18 million in improvements to its housing in February, 2025.