A watchdog has criticised Islington Council over serious failings in how it manages thousands of social homes in the borough.
By Josef Steen, Local Democracy Reporter
A watchdog has criticised Islington Council over serious failings in how it manages thousands of social homes in the borough.
On Wednesday May 13, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) handed the north London council a C3 rating (signifies “serious failings”, C4 being the worst) after inspecting its housing stock and finding the local authority needed to act immediately to make “significant improvements”.
The regulator put the spotlight on several faults within Islington’s housing system, which often revolved around outdated or incorrect information regarding property conditions. Inspectors found most council homes had not been surveyed for more than a decade and were missing formal health and safety assessments.
These “serious failings” meant the regulator was not convinced the borough’s 25,700 social homes met the Decent Homes Standard (DHS).
Other failures laid out in the report included that more than 1,000 communal lifts across the borough had overdue works, with up to half of these delayed by over a year. The council said these were not safety critical and had not forced the lifts out of action.
But the regulator had “limited assurance” that the council’s records on health and safety were compliant, notably around lifts, asbestos and fire safety.
The RSH commended council workers’ “fair and respectful culture towards tenants” and noted the council had engaged “constructively” throughout its investigation. The watchdog also judged Islington’s repairs service to be accessible and in line with regulations, and found communication with tenants was improving.
The report concluded that Islington accepted it needed to act to rectify these failures and weaknesses. According to the regulator, the council has started an “accelerated” survey programme for its housing stock but this is not expected to be finished until the end of 2028.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) previously reported that between 2024 and 2025 Islington Council had helped create a bottleneck in planned asbestos checks across its housing stock by belatedly giving contractors the annual list of blocks that needed inspecting.
This left the contractors with just four months to complete a year’s worth of checks to dozens of housing blocks, though the council said no tenants were exposed to the carcinogen as a result. These inspections were essential because the council’s records on file were not compliant with health and safety rules which came into force in 2012.
Responding to the watchdog’s report, the council said the findings did not reflect the council staff’s “work and dedication”. In a statement, the local authority welcomed the national regulator’s review, which it said would help its efforts to provide safe, decent and well-managed homes.
Councillor Una O’Halloran, Leader of Islington Council, said: “We take the Regulator of Social Housing’s judgement seriously and fully accept that improvement is needed. The findings highlight weaknesses in how we understand the condition of our homes and how we assure ourselves on safety data, and that is not good enough.
“This is not about a lack of commitment, but about systems and assurance that must be stronger. We had already begun an improvement programme before the inspection, and we are now accelerating that work, with clear accountability and close engagement with the regulator, to make sure residents have safe, decent and well-maintained homes.”
The council added that it was “stepping up” work already done to address the finding, including faster surveys and lift repairs, improving data systems and seeking more reviews of its internal reporting.
The RSH assesses English social landlords on a scale of 1-4, with 1-2 meaning compliance and 3-4 indicating non-compliance.
