The Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Commission met on 9 September 2025, to discuss the repairs and maintenance service, and to receive an update on the C4 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The commission also reviewed and agreed its work programme for the next meeting.

Repairs and Maintenance Service

The Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Commission reviewed the performance of the Repairs and Maintenance Service (RMS), including progress on overdue repairs, repairs completed within target, and resident satisfaction. The report highlighted progress since previous updates in March 2024 and May 2025, but also identified ongoing challenges.

David Padfield, Interim Director of Housing Services, told the commission that performance figures showed an uptick in many measures, with most either at or close to target. He apologised that a table in the report had the years labelled the wrong way around, and actually showed an improvement, not a deterioration. He said that priorities going forward included focusing on trades where there was still a backlog, and developing the online repairs offer to take pressure off the repairs contact centre.

Councillor Susan Masters, Scrutiny Commission Chair, asked about the standards for responses to members' queries, the approval levels for repairs, and the long-term goal for call waiting times.

Mr Padfield responded that the current call waiting times were too long, and that priorities included increasing staffing levels, working with PwC, and improving the online reporting offer. He did not provide a long-term target for call waiting times, but said that the council was looking to have significant improvements.

Councillor Masters also raised concerns about leaseholders having difficulty reporting repairs online, and asked what kind of online response residents get when they report an emergency repair. Mr Padfield said he did not know the full details about the restriction on leaseholders, but that he would need to look at what the current offer is and whether the council was going to improve that for leaseholders. He added that one of the things that the council was looking at when developing the online offer was to make sure that if anything is an emergency, then it gets escalated within the correct time period.

Councillor Blossom Young, Lead Member for Council Housing Improvements, added that the repairs improvement panel had made a series of recommendations, particularly about the call centre, and that a number of those recommendations had been extended.

Regulator of Social Housing

The Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Commission received an update report concerning the C4 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) issued on 16 October 2024.

The report provided an update on the progress of the Housing Services Improvement Programme since June 2025, and sought approval of four key outputs from the Transparency and Resident Access workstream within the programme: the new Housing Resident Involvement Strategy and Action Plan¹, the Housing Ombudsman Complaints Self-Assessment, the Corporate Response to the Annual Complaints Self-Assessment, and the adoption of the amended Housing Complaints Policy.

The report noted that the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 established new consumer standards and a proactive inspection regime for the social housing sector, and that under this new regime, the Regulator of Social Housing inspected Newham Council in May 2024. On 16th October 2024, the Regulator's report was published and the council was issued with a C4 grading, indicative of systemic issues and serious failings in compliance with the consumer standards.

The council has been working closely with the Regulator to agree its approach to achieving compliance with the consumer standards, and has set out its approach through its Improvement Programme, meeting regularly with the Regulator to discuss progress. The Improvement Programme has been shaped into five themes: Safety and Quality, Neighbourhood and Communities, Transparency and Resident Access, Tenancy and Leaseholder Improvement, and Ways of Working.

The plan for delivery of the improvement programme was publicly launched in May 2025 entitled Improving Your Homes: Newham Housing Services Improvement Plan.

The report also detailed progress on Tenant Satisfaction Measures, a compliance review undertaken by Pennington Choices, vulnerability screening, electrical safety, fire risk assessments, stock condition, and repairs including damp and mould.

The report proposed the adoption of the new Housing Resident Involvement Strategy, the 2024/25 Annual Complaints Self-Assessment to the Housing Ombudsman, the Corporate Response to the 2024/25 Annual Complaints Self-Assessment, and the adoption of the amended Housing Complaints Policy.

Work Programme

The Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Commission reviewed and confirmed the work programme for the next meeting. The key topic for the next meeting will be temporary accommodation.