Strong progress continues as housing service transition moves forward

Strong progress continues to be made on improving West Northamptonshire’s social housing services and the work to bring them back under direct Council management.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has been continuing to drive forward improvements as social housing landlord, working with Northamptonshire Partnership Homes (NPH) to ensure performance is strengthened across a range of key areas for tenants including repairs satisfaction, complaints handling and engagement.

The Council is also seeing increasing confidence by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) around its improvement journey, with meetings continuing to reduce as actions and improvements are progressed.

The latest update, due to be presented to the Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday 10 March, demonstrates measurable improvement following the C3 grading issued by the RSH in November 2024. WNC’s preparations also remain firmly on track to bring the management of the services in-house by April 2027, with Phase 1 of the transition programme now underway.

The report outlines strengthened governance and oversight arrangements, with clear progress against regulatory actions. Encouraging results are also reflected in tenant satisfaction measures, which remain on target, with satisfaction around repairs continuing to improve. Stage 1 complaints have fallen for the fifth consecutive quarter, alongside improved response times.

Compliance performance has also seen major improvement, with Gas, Fire, Water and Asbestos programmes all now at 100%. Electrical compliance continues to improve, and overdue Fire Risk Assessment remedial actions have reduced dramatically from 4,500 to just 14 cases.

We were clear that where failings were identified, we would act decisively, and that is exactly what we are doing. We are seeing real, measurable improvement across compliance, repairs, complaints and customer satisfaction, while continuing to address more complex challenges such as data quality and the Decent Homes backlog.
The transition of NPH back into the Council is progressing as planned, with Phase 1 preparations underway and stronger governance arrangements now firmly in place. There is still work to do and we are not complacent, but the direction of travel is clearly positive. Our focus remains on delivering safe, decent homes and building a modern, accountable housing service that tenants can have confidence in.Cllr Charlie Hastie, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities

While significant progress has been made, the Council recognises that challenges remain. Work continues to tackle the Decent Homes backlog, with an independent audit of the Decent Homes calculation and programme being commissioned to provide additional assurance.

Improvement activity is also ongoing to strengthen satisfaction around Anti-Social Behaviour handling and ensure tenants feel listened to. Alongside this, historic data quality issues are being addressed through new IT systems and enhanced validation processes.

Progress is also being made in Housing Allocations. Following consultation earlier this year, changes to the housing register are being introduced to reduce backlogs and ensure a fairer, more transparent allocations process. Further improvements are also expected as a new

Choice Based Lettings IT system is introduced, helping to streamline applications and enhance the customer experience.