Criticism as council details improvement following 2025 housing inspection

A Reform councillor has accused council bosses of ‘covering their a***s’ after a damning housing inspection report in Oldham last year.

The town hall owns nearly 2,100 homes across the borough, but they are not directly managed by the local authority. The management of the properties is part of four different deals with some lasting up to 30 years.

The local authority did not realise it had to oversee the performance of contractors as the landlord. That led to a damning inspection by the Regulator of Social Housing in 2025. The rating related to the council’s oversight rather than the quality of the housing itself.

The regulator found ‘serious failings’ on the part of the council which required ‘significant improvement’. Issues raised included a lack of evidence reports were considered by senior officers or sent to councillors and a lack of sufficient assurance and verification of outcomes reported by providers.

There was also ‘a lack of up to date stock condition information’ for one contract, inconsistencies in reporting, and not enough done by the council to assure itself that the information received was robust. A lack of opportunities for tenants to scrutinise performance and inconsistent approaches across contracts were also reported.

After the inspection, the council began working on an improvement plan which was recently improved by the regulator. A local authority report said: “Engagement with the providers on the key elements of this plan has been positive, and a number of improvements are already under way.”

“Consultation has recently concluded on a service redesign, which will put additional staffing into the team, in order to ensure there is sufficient capacity to both deal with the day-to-day contract management of our properties, while also ensuring compliance with the Consumer Standards, and readiness for future inspections.

“A new Consumer Standards Improvement Board is being stood up, with the first meeting scheduled for late October. This board will include tenant representation, and have responsibility for signing off each action as complete.”

The report was presented to councillors at a scrutiny meeting on October 7 but councillors cross-party criticised the fact substantial amounts of information were only presented to them at the meeting itself. Labour councillor Josh Charters said: “I do not think I can say that I have any confidence without seeing it myself properly.”

However Reform councillor Ioan Williams went further criticising what he saw as potential ‘pen pushing’, adding: “It kind of comes across you are covering your own a***s when it comes to the next inspection.”

Coun Robert Barnes also criticised what he said were serious failings and questioned why the situation had been allowed to go on for so long.
In response, officers said the rating was because the council had not been fulfilling its duties as a landlord and were taking the word of the housing providers that a good service was being delivered. This had been the case as the providers had received good ratings, councillors were told.

Regardless, officers said council should have been overseeing things more thorough and ‘scrutinise the data coming through’. Further reports are expected to come to committee at a later date detailing the council’s improvement.