Haringey Council has received a C4 consumer grade, the lowest available, after an inspection of its housing service identified very serious failings. The judgement places the authority under intensive regulatory engagement, while it is expected to make urgent and sustained improvements for tenants.
The decision concerns Haringey’s role as a social landlord. A consumer grade considers how a landlord delivers required outcomes for tenants. It is not a rating of every council service and it does not mean that every council home is unsafe. The scope of the findings nevertheless makes the result significant for residents who depend on the council for repairs, safety work and responses to complaints.
Repairs and fire-safety actions at the centre of the judgement
The inspection identified a substantial backlog of overdue repairs, including damp and mould cases. Only around half of reported non-emergency repairs were completed on time in 2025/26. Residents have continued to face delays, missed appointments and communication failures despite improvement work over several years.
Almost 4,000 remedial fire-safety actions are overdue, with more than 1,400 categorised as high risk. These figures count outstanding actions rather than individual homes, but they form a central part of the concerns that led to the C4 grade. The judgement also records weaknesses in property compliance, performance information, oversight and assurance.
Complaints handling was another area of concern. The inspection found that the council had not provided timely responses or demonstrated that it was learning from complaints. It also identified a failure to inform the regulator about significant issues that had emerged. The council did not provide a full picture of its backlog of overdue fire-safety actions in an open and timely way.
What the C4 grade means
This is Haringey’s first consumer grade. Local authorities receive consumer grades for their work as social landlords rather than the governance and financial-viability grades used for housing associations. A C4 is the most serious consumer outcome and reflects the need for fundamental change in the service.
The regulator has not yet seen sufficient evidence that the council fully understands the potential risks to tenants or can put matters right. It will maintain intensive engagement and close oversight, with clear expectations for improvement. That process concerns whether the authority can show, over time, that it has addressed the issues identified by the inspection.
The grade should not be read as a finding about every repair request or every property. It is a judgement about systemic weaknesses in the delivery of housing services and the council’s ability to assure itself that required standards are being met. The combination of repair delays, overdue safety work, complaints handling problems and information failures explains why the judgement goes beyond a narrow operational issue.
Changes now proposed
The council has accepted the findings and apologised to tenants and leaseholders for the failings identified during the inspection. It plans an immediate restructuring proposal for housing leadership and an urgent independent review into why incomplete information was provided to the regulator in 2025 and why further proactive self-reporting did not take place after 2022.
A refreshed Housing Transformation Plan is due to go to Cabinet early in the new year. The council also plans to appoint an external expert to oversee the overhaul of housing services. Those steps are commitments rather than evidence that the identified problems have already been resolved.
For tenants, progress will be measured in practical outcomes: repairs completed when promised, outstanding fire-safety actions closed, clear communication, complaints answered properly and reliable information reaching senior decision-makers. The forthcoming plan and independent review may set out how the council intends to achieve those changes. The immediate position is that the C4 judgement remains in place and improvement will need to be demonstrated under close oversight.
