The Nottingham City Council's Place, Economy and Infrastructure Scrutiny Committee met on 15 September 2025, to discuss social housing and flood risk management in the city. The committee reviewed the delivery of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) Improvement Plan, and tenant engagement and influence within the council's housing services. They also noted responses to previous recommendations and reviewed their work programme for the 2025/26 municipal year.

Regulator of Social Housing Improvement Plan

The committee scrutinised the delivery of the Post-Inspection Improvement Plan (P&I IP), developed following the Regulator of Social Housing's (RSH) inspection of the council as a direct provider of social housing. The RSH had graded the council as 'C3' and raised concerns about stock condition surveys, data integrity, repairs performance, and tenant involvement in decision-making.

The committee heard that the P&I IP was designed to address performance gaps and ensure continuous improvement across key service areas, including stock condition surveys, repairs and maintenance, tenant engagement, gas safety compliance, complaints management and adaptations services.

Key progress areas included:

• Stock Condition Surveys: The council had exceeded its stock condition survey target, completing 14,123 surveys, representing 57.5% of all surveys due.
• Housing Advisory Board (HAB) Functionality: The HAB has taken a lead role in tenant conferences and worked with officers to deliver the P&I IP objectives.
• Repairs and Maintenance (R&M) Improvement: The first three phases of the repairs process transformation have been rolled out, with emergency and routine repairs reporting transferred to Total Mobile.
• Gas Safety Compliance: Significant progress has been made in eliminating the practice of capping gas supplies due to non-access, with legal action being taken to remove existing caps.
• Tenant Engagement: There have been improvements in published information to tenants, and the HAB is regularly involved in decisions affecting tenant experience.
• Disrepair Cases: Active management of disrepair cases has led to a sustained reduction in the number of live cases, from 1,000 to 485.

The RSH required a Voluntary Undertaking from the council, involving a third-party organisation to review the evidence and stated outcomes of the P&I IP. HQN has been retained to carry out this work, with an interim report expected by the end of November 2025.

Tenant Engagement and Influence

The committee reviewed the structures established to involve tenants in delivering an effective social housing service, following the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, which strengthened tenants' rights to influence their landlord's services. Since Nottingham City Homes (NCH) was brought back in-house in April 2023, the council has had direct responsibility for housing management and maintenance, making tenant involvement essential.

The Tenant Participation and Advisory Service (TPAS) was commissioned to deliver a 'resident involvement in governance' review, recommending a strong tenant influence vehicle. As a result, the Housing Assurance Board (HAB) was established, comprising residents and leaseholders.

The committee heard that Housing Services had struggled to provide documentary evidence of change resulting from resident voice and influence during the RSH inspection, due to a lack of a robust system for capturing outcomes. A new system and processes have since been implemented to monitor and evaluate the outcomes of resident engagement and feedback.

Responses to Recommendations

The committee noted the responses received from the Executive to recommendations made at the previous meeting on 21 July 2025, regarding the Housing Allocations Policy and Flood Risk Management Strategy. The responses are detailed in the Responses to Recommendations document.

Work Programme

The committee reviewed its work programme for the 2025/26 municipal year, as detailed in the Work Programme document, and considered potential items for future meetings, including social housing voids, parking strategy, transport policy, skills and employment, and flood prevention.