An inspection has found that “improvement is needed” in Stevenage Borough Council’s housing.

The Regulator of Social Housing, which is carrying out inspections of all large social landlords, has given Stevenage’s authority a C2 rating – the second highest – for its consumer standards.

The inspections were introduced in April, and by last month, 35 landlords had been rated, with nine receiving the highest C1 grade, 13 receiving a C2, 12 receiving a C3, and one receiving a C4.

While the regulator found “some weaknesses” with Stevenage Borough Council’s management of its 7,700-strong housing stock, it said the council had shown “it understands where it needs to make improvements”.

It said the council allocates its homes “efficiently”, provides an “effective” repairs service, makes timely decisions on “future investment” in its properties, treats tenants with “fairness and respect” and meets its health and safety responsibilities.

But it also said there were “weaknesses” in the opportunities given to tenants to “influence and scrutinise” the council’s work, and criticised the “limited” information provided to tenants about the housing service’s performance.

The council has improved its handling of complaints, the inspector said: “Stevenage Borough Council identified a significant proportion of complaints related to repairs and the learning from these complaints was used to develop the repairs improvement programme.”

During the inspection, the regulator reviewed hundreds of documents and spoke to council tenants, officers and councillors.

Cllr Jackie Hollywell, the council’s cabinet member for housing, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We welcome the inspection because it helps us to have a look at our housing against the consumer standards.

“It also helps to show we are doing the best we possibly can for our tenants. We’ve got lots of financial challenges [but] … we are on the right road.

“Our houses are safe, we’re doing the right things about fire resilience and all of those necessary things that we know are so vital and important for our tenants.

“We’re really pleased about the result of the inspection … but we’re not complacent, we know we’ve got things to do.”

Matthew Gough, the council’s housing special projects lead officer, said the inspection was an “endorsement” of the council’s approach to its housing stock: “We’ve had positive feedback from it, things are going well, and I think it’s a good reflection of where we are and the work councillors have been leading on and colleagues have been delivering on.

“We’ve got those fundamentals in place and we’re on that upwards trajectory.”

Kerry Clifford, assistant director for housing at the council, said the report reflected work that has gone into the authority’s housing transformation programme, which focuses on improving its performance in areas such as damp and mould and repairs and maintenance.

She said the council had introduced a new resident engagement strategy this year to help get tenants more involved in working with the authority, which will include recruiting additional staff.

Ms Clifford hopes the strategy will encourage tenants to “scrutinise” the work done by the council: “It’s really important that we get across to our residents that we want them to come and engage with us and feedback to us, to help us shape our services for the future.

“We are on that journey to try and close that gap [identified by the inspector].”

Stevenage Borough Council’s cabinet will consider the judgement at its meeting on December 11.

Cllr Richard Henry, leader of the council, said: “The positive outcome of the inspection shows just how hard our council is working to make sure that our tenants’ homes are in good condition.”