The Regulator makes sure that as a social housing landlord we meet a set of standards to provide good quality homes and services to all our social housing residents. These are the housing Consumer Standards that apply to all registered providers of social housing.
In November 2023, we commissioned a review of our performance against the consumer standards. This review identified a number of failings, particularly around how we were ensuring homes were kept safe. We referred ourselves to the Regulator.
The Regulator reached its conclusions in July 2024 and published a Regulatory Notice. The Regulatory Notice confirmed our concerns and detailed its findings, along with recommendations for which areas need addressing most urgently.
We accept the findings of the Regulator and are very sorry that we've fallen below these standards. All tenants should expect us to deliver a high standard of housing and comply with national standards, and we share these expectations.
We're working hard to put things right quickly and improve our arrangements for the maintenance of council owned homes. We have an improvement plan in place to make sure we stay on track.
We continue to work with and report to the Regulator regularly to ensure that it addresses the regulatory compliance failings. We want residents to feel that we provide a good level of service, that we listen to them, and that we act quickly when problems happen.
We have published an improvement strategy which sets out how we will improve services for our social housing residents and ensure they are safe in their homes.
The strategy sets out 3 objectives that will be achieved:
- All homes will be compliant with regulatory requirements around safety and quality.
- Changes will be embedded into existing systems within services so that improvements are sustainable for the long-term.
- The council will meet and maintain the consumer standards and work to achieve a C1 grading by the Regulator of Social Housing, showing that a good service is provided to all residents.
We've set up a dedicated programme board to oversee our improvement plans and make sure that work is delivered at pace. This is overseen by senior leaders at the council including the Executive Director of Housing.
The improvement strategy focuses on five key areas for improvement:
- Safety and quality: carry out more inspections of our homes, carry out important remedial works to ensure that homes are safe, and how we collect data to ensure that we have good records
- Complaints and resident feedback: how we engage, listen, and respond to residents to improve our services
- Neighbourhood: developing and publicising our services in collaboration with residents
- Tenancy: how we allocate, manage and support the sustainment of tenancies
- How we do things: our approach to strategy, culture and governance.
We're also looking closely at our data to better understand what works have been completed and what is outstanding.
By carrying out checks and surveys in homes and updating our records, we're gaining a better understanding of where we're behind and where more work is needed.
In the Housing Consumer Standards improvement Strategy, we've committed to 4 milestones which show our journey towards reaching lasting improvements in the service.
While some work may take longer to complete, we'll always complete works that carry a high risk first to ensure that residents are safe.
Milestone 1
October 2025: We'll have a good understanding of what has gone wrong in the past and have plans in place to fix these root issues.
Milestone 2
December 2026: We'll have completed all the high-risk actions that were identified by the Regulator and we'll be able to evidence consistent improvement across our services.
This is extended from original target of October 2026.
Milestone 3
March 2027: All our homes will be compliant with safety and quality standards and we'll have responded to the root causes of historic failings within the service.
This is extended from original target of October 2026.
Milestone 4
June 2027: We've fully embedded improvements across all service areas and are compliant with the consumer standards.
This is extended from original target of March 2027.
Our priorities
We're prioritising the most urgent health and safety related works first.
This is based on criteria including vulnerabilities of residents, risk posed by the type of property and risk post by the outstanding improvement or works.
We completed milestone 1 of our housing improvement programme in October 2025.
The outstanding milestones 2 remain on track milestones 3 and 4 have actions that have experienced some set backs.
We are continuing to make progress and expect to complete the programme in June 2027.
There are still a small number of actions still to do on the second phase on milestone 2 of our improvement plan. We plan to complete these by the end of December 2026.
Our improvement work focuses on:
- completing repairs in a timely fashion and to a high standard
- putting residents at the heart of decision-making
- improving the quality and reliability of housing services
- strengthening leadership and accountability
- creating a housing service that better meets residents' needs now and in the future
We're seeing positive progress in a number of areas:
- more homes now have up-to-date electrical safety checks, helping to keep residents safe
- gas safety performance has improved significantly, with far fewer overdue checks than earlier in the year
- serious housing safety issues have reduced by over 200 since July, meaning residents homes are safer
- we've improved how we monitor housing safety issues and are working to make sure our records are accurate and up to date
- independent reviews are helping us identify where we need to improve and make sure the right changes are being made
Where we're focusing our efforts
We know there is still more to do and we remain focused on the areas that matter most to residents.
Fire safety
We're working to improve fire safety compliance across our homes and buildings.
This includes completing fire risk assessments and any follow-up actions needed to keep residents safe.
Damp and mould
We're improving how cases are recorded, monitored and managed. This is to make sure residents get the support and repairs they need as quickly as possible.
Gas safety
Although gas safety performance has improved significantly, we are still completing the remaining overdue checks.
We continue to maintain high levels of compliance throughout this work.
Homes with capped gas supplies
Some homes currently have capped gas supplies, which can affect heating and hot water.
We're providing additional support to affected residents and changing our approach so gas capping is only used in exceptional health and safety circumstances.
This support includes:
- dedicated resident contact and support
- enhanced communications and engagement
- assistance for households facing barriers to restoring supply
Our aim is to remove all existing gas-capped supplies by May 2027.
Listening to residents
Residents continue to help shape our improvement work through groups such as the Housing Scrutiny Panel.
Their feedback helps us understand what's working well, where improvements are needed and how we can provide better services in the future.
Find out how you can get involved at Resident engagement: ways to get involved.
Milestone 1 completion update video
We're reporting regularly to the Homes and Housing Delivery Committee to provide an update on the progress of the Housing Consumer Standards Programme.
These reports include information on:
- actions completed and outstanding
- how we're progressing towards compliance
- resident feedback and associated actions
- horizon scanning for upcoming legislative and regulatory changes
- feedback from the Regulator
Read the latest report.
The Regulator of Social Housing has started an inspection of our housing service.
The regulator is an independent public body that checks whether social landlords are meeting the Consumer Standards.
There are four consumer standards:
- Safety and Quality standard
- Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard
- Neighbourhood and Community standard
- Tenancy standard
The inspection will assess how well we're meeting these standards, which focus on the quality of homes and services we provide to residents living in council homes.
The regulator is expected to visit Bristol between 10 and 12 November 2026. Following the inspection, it will publish its findings and issue a consumer grading.
Our current consumer grading is C3, which means the regulator identified serious failings requiring significant improvement. This grading followed our self-referral to the regulator in April 2024. Since then, we have been working to address the issues identified and improve services for residents through the Housing Consumer Standards Programme.
We'll keep residents informed about the outcome of inspection and any actions we need to take.
If you're a tenant or leaseholder, you can have your say on how the housing service is run. Read our resident engagement: ways to get involved page to find out more.
If you have any concerns or questions:
- email hcs@bristol.gov.uk
- call 0800 694 0184, for free
- get in touch with your local ward councillor