Housing improvement

The programme was completed in 2025 and the regulatory notice from the Regulator for Social Housing was lifted in April. A new housing improvement programme is now running, aimed at the further improvement of housing services for residents and strong compliance with the Regulator for Social Housing consumer standards. 

Programme information

In 2021, following serious concerns about the living conditions at the Regina Road estate in South Norwood and other failings in our housing services including communications and performance management, we referred ourselves to the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH).

This resulted in the RSH issuing a regulator notice. We agreed to a voluntary undertaking, which meant we committed to improving housing services, including better safety, repairs, and communication with residents.

Since then, we have been working through a programme of improvements to transform our housing services. This includes working closely with our independent Housing Improvement Board which includes residents and housing professionals, to address the issues and rebuild trust with our residents. The board has helped us to make sure that we meet residents’ needs and keep on improving.

Our residents have also been involved in shaping change, with their feedback driving improvements in communication, trust, and decision-making.

As part of the transformation, we have invested over £30m in 2024/25 to upgrade council homes across the borough, secured £166m for the regeneration of the Regina Road estate, and transformed our repairs service by bringing the contact centre in-house and completing stock condition surveys for 70% of homes so we can better look after them.

Staff training has been a priority, including a focus on damp and mould awareness, fire safety, and customer care.

Removal of the regulatory notice on Croydon

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) lifted the regulatory notice in April 2025 after seeing progress in housing standards, repairs, maintenance, involving our residents, and customer care.

This a major milestone in our work to improve housing services, but there is still work to be done to meet residents’ expectations and further improve our services.

Read the London Borough of Croydon independent housing investigation (PDF, 502.41KB)

Since the removal of the regulatory notice, We have set up a new Housing Assurance Board (HAB) to maintain strong oversight of housing services and ensure accountability. Elected members, independent experts, tenants and leaseholders sit on the Board which meets six times per year, two meetings to cover homelessness and four meetings to cover landlord services.

A new housing improvement programme has been developed which aims to improve the delivery of services to residents and maintain compliance with the requirements of the Regulator of Social Housing Consumer Standards. 

The programme consists of 6 workstreams: 

1. Keeping residents safe
2. Resident relationship
3. Efficiency and utilisation
4. Community and safety
5. Governance, information and performance
6. People and culture. 

Progress against the housing improvement programme is reported to the Assurance Board with opportunities for board members to ask questions and hold the service accountable.

The Board sits within Croydon Council’s governance structure and recordings of the meetings and reports considered by the Board can be found on our Housing Assurance Board page.