The Children, Education and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee were scheduled to meet on Monday 20 October 2025 to discuss the future of social housing services, review a scrutiny prioritisation toolkit, and consider the committee's work programme. As part of the work programme review, the committee was also scheduled to discuss a proposal for a scrutiny review of addressing disrepair in social housing in West Northamptonshire.

Future of Northamptonshire Partnership Homes

The committee was scheduled to discuss the future delivery of social housing services currently run by Northamptonshire Partnership Homes (NPH), an arm's length management organisation (ALMO) that manages around 11,500 properties in Northampton on behalf of West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).

In 2015, Northampton Borough Council outsourced its housing management service to NPH via a 15-year management agreement. When local government reorganisation created the unitary authorities in 2021, the agreement was assigned to WNC.

The report pack noted that many authorities have moved away from the ALMO model because changes to legislation mean it is less financially beneficial. It also noted that legislative changes made by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) have meant that councils are held to a higher standard, improving safety and support for tenants. The report pack stated that WNC is responsible for compliance with the new regime, even where the work is delivered by NPH.

WNC made a self-referral to the Regulator of Social Housing in September 2024 after identifying an issue in relation to data quality and landlord health and safety compliance. The regulator issued a C3 judgement for compliance, meaning serious failings were identified with significant improvement required.

A tenant consultation was undertaken in accordance with Section 105 of the Housing Act 1985. According to the report pack, 2,699 responses were received from tenants and leaseholders, representing a 22% response rate. Of those, less than 10% did not support the transfer to WNC, 60% agreed with the transfer, and 30% were undecided.

The report pack stated that a commitment was made to return with the outcome of the tenant consultation and further recommendations regarding the future management of WNC's owned housing stock. An options appraisal has been created to further explore the benefits and risks of bringing NPH back in house. The following options have been assessed for each date of 2026 and 2027:

• Lift and shift of the entire organisation
• Partial transfer of some services

The report pack stated that a business case is underway to assess the potential one-off costs that will be needed to implement this transfer.

The rationale for considering bringing NPH back in house included:

• WNC being one step removed from the data
• Opportunities for efficiencies
• Greater synergies and closer working relationships between the two housing related services
• There are no longer financial benefits to this type of model

The report pack stated that a detailed implementation plan has been created across multiple work streams to ensure a safe and seamless transition.

The report pack also included a timeline of next steps:

• A cabinet report will be presented to EPB on 21st October.
• NPH briefing on the Cabinet report content on 30th October (prior to report publication).
• A cabinet meeting on 11th November will consider the options and recommendations
• If a decision is made to bring NPH back in house, WNC need to seek formal approval from the Secretary of State.

Scrutiny Prioritisation Toolkit

The committee was scheduled to be advised of the new prioritisation toolkit endorsed by the Overview and Scrutiny Triangulation Group. According to the Scrutiny Prioritisation Toolkit, overview and scrutiny committees are expected to assess potential topics to ensure those topics will add value and improve outcomes. The toolkit is designed to help members prioritise topics already agreed for inclusion by assessing them against prioritisation criteria and, if necessary, scoring them.

The toolkit suggests that topics can be evaluated using a table that assigns a score for each category. A linear hierarchy can then produced, scoring topics from 6 to 18, with 18 being the highest score possible. Members may wish to use the following resources to support this process:

• The Code of Corporate Governance
• The Corporate Plan
• The Council's Risk Strategy and Register

The categories to be scored are:

1. Measure Public interest
2. Opportunity to effect change
3. Community safety
4. Reach
5. Duplication
6. Council priorities

The toolkit also includes a matrix that may be used to aid further prioritisation, assessing each topic according to strategic impact and timing.

Committee Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to review and note its work programme for 2025/26. The draft work programme included the following topics:

• Support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
• Future delivery of social housing services currently run by Northamptonshire Partnership Homes
• West Northamptonshire youth offer
• 0-19 services in West Northamptonshire
• Housing Allocation Scheme
• Support for care leavers
• Family help and family hubs
• Smartphone-free policies in schools
• Support for foster carers scrutiny review in West Northamptonshire impact
• Empty Homes
• Children, Education and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee Annual Report 2025/26
• School place planning
• Access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in West Northamptonshire
• Take-up of the early education and childcare entitlement in West Northamptonshire
• Early years – response to government policy direction

The committee was also scheduled to consider a proposal form for a scrutiny review of addressing disrepair in social housing in West Northamptonshire. Councillor Sally Keeble submitted the proposal form, suggesting the scrutiny topic because of:

• The importance of everyone having a decent home
• The large numbers of NPH properties that fail the decent homes test
• The decision to take management of the NPH stock back in house

Councillor Sally Keeble noted that estimates suggest that 20% of the Northampton Partnership Homes stock fail the Decent Homes Test, putting the authority in the bottom quartile of housing authorities nationally. She also noted that the Decent Homes Test sets standards for the basic maintenance and facilities in homes, and that the NPH figures have fluctuated substantially so there is a need for initial scrutiny to get accurate figures for the numbers, compared with numbers for other comparable authorities.

Councillor Sally Keeble suggested that the review should achieve the following objectives:

1. Identify the extent and nature of the disrepair.
2. Identify a strategy to enable the housing stock to be upgraded, or if it is more cost effective, reprovided.
3. To cost the strategy and identify sources of funding.

Councillor Sally Keeble suggested that the effectiveness of the scrutiny will be measured in the first instance by the development of a strategy, and in the longer term by the increase in the number of homes achieving the Decent Homes Standard.