City of York Council has welcomed its first report from the Regulator of Social Housing following an inspection held earlier this year.
This is the first time the council has been inspected by the Regulator, which is assessing how social landlords deliver national standards. As a unitary authority, York was inspected in February 2026 against all 4 standards and the inspectors rated the council’s services as C2.
C1 is the highest rating and C4 the lowest. Of the housing providers to have received a consumer grade, around 40% had a C2.
A C2 grade confirms that the council is meeting the regulator’s standards overall, but that improvements are required to ensure consistent, high-quality services for all tenants.
The inspector found that at the time of the inspection the council was providing a repairs and maintenance service that met regulatory requirements. It was also dealing with damp and mould within legally required timescales and meeting its landlord health and safety obligations.
The regulator found positive evidence of taking action to improve communal areas and shared spaces, with the introduction of estate walkabouts, a neighbourhood caretaking team and additional funding being invested in neighbourhood improvements.
Further work was identified to complete its domestic electrical safety programme and also fire safety and water hygiene actions arising from safety assessments.
However, the regulator could see that the council has and continues to make progress on and has mitigations in place to prevent risks to tenants. The regulator also identified that the council needs to increase the information it holds on its tenants to ensure that its services deliver fair and equitable outcomes. Increasing the quality of tenant information and undertaking tenancy well being visits are a priority for the council to tailor our services to customers needs.
Positively, the regulator stated that the council demonstrated self-awareness throughout the inspection, and they could see positive evidence of progress being made to address the areas of weakness they found and the regulator will continue to work with the council to ensure we address these issues.
Cllr Michael Pavlovic, Executive Member for Housing at City of York Council, said:
Whilst pleased to have received a C2 rating, we are already working on an action plan to achieve C1, at our next inspection.
“I’m incredibly grateful to our teams involved in this inspection and for their hard work each and every day. We don’t always get it right, but we’re working incredibly hard to improve and we always strive to deliver excellence in our services.
“We welcome this report which accurately reflects our understanding of what’s important to our 7,000 plus homes, and our plans to further improve our services.
“The regulator acknowledged our use of tenants’ feedback to make improvements like reinstating estate walkabouts, introducing Neighbourhood Caretakers and allocating extra funding for neighbourhood improvements. Action has been taken to make important improvements to housing services, something reflected through improved Tenant Satisfaction survey results and by this regulatory judgement.”
Cllr Claire Douglas, Leader of City of York Council, said:
My administration has an absolute commitment to providing the best housing services to York’s council home tenants. By working with tenants, we can ensure we meet both their needs and our statutory responsibilities as a landlord.
“I’m pleased to see improvements underway but recognise that there is more to do; we will always strive to ensure our housing services are the best they can be”.
Richard Webb, Chief Executive of City of York Council, said:
The C2 judgement is a fair assessment of our first RSH inspection. It recognises what we are doing well and highlights where we must improve.
“We are investing additional resources in frontline housing services, including more staff capacity to respond to enquiries and complaints more quickly, and to strengthen safety and quality oversight.
“Just as importantly, we are involving tenants more directly in shaping and checking our services, so improvements are measured by the people who live in our homes, not just by the council.”
The report said: “City of York Council is working constructively with us and has demonstrated self-awareness throughout the inspection; there is positive evidence of progress being made to address the areas of weakness. We will continue to work with City of York Council to seek assurance that it is addressing these issues.”
See the Regulator of Social Housing’s report.
See more information about housing in York.