Decision

Anchor Hanover Group (LH4095) - Regulatory Judgement: 26 February 2025

Updated 26 February 2025

Our Judgement

	Grade /Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C3 Our judgement is that there are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.	First grading	February 2025
Governance	Grading under review	Existing grade (G1) placed under review	February 2025
Viability	V1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.	Based on previous assessment	December 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Anchor Hanover Group (Anchor) following a self-referral made by the landlord on 20 December 2024, resulting in responsive engagement that completed in February 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C3. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord and follows responsive engagement with Anchor, that focused on the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability gradings for Anchor were last updated in a regulatory judgement published on 18 December 2024, following a stability check to confirm a G1 grade for governance and a V1 grade for financial viability.

We are currently investigating matters that may impact on whether Anchor meets governance elements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard. We placed Anchor on the gradings under review list on 26 February 2025.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the responsive engagement, it is our judgement that there are serious failings in Anchor’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C3 grade for Anchor.

We are currently investigating matters that may impact on our current regulatory judgement that Anchor meets our governance requirements. That judgement was based on the stability check completed in December 2024.

Our judgement is that Anchor continues to meet our financial viability requirements. Based on our stability check review completed in December 2024, we have concluded a V1 grade for Anchor.

How we reached our judgement

We began our responsive engagement with Anchor in December 2024, following information provided to us by Anchor which indicated a number of areas of potential non-delivery of relevant outcomes of the Consumer Standards.

Following the self-referral, we carried out responsive engagement with Anchor, initially focussing on the Health and Safety elements of the Safety and Quality Standard, but also outcomes in the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

This responsive engagement included reviewing documents and information provided to us by Anchor, along with follow up meetings and discussions.. This regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the responsive engagement process, including Anchor’s self-referral. In making our decision, we have considered how well Anchor is delivering the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C3 – February 2025 

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas, and to ensure that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to use relevant information and data to understand the diverse needs of tenants and assess whether their housing and landlord services deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants.

The self-referral made by Anchor on 20 December 2024 identified that over a third of its homes did not have a current satisfactory electrical safety inspection report and that there was a significant backlog of electrical remedial actions. In its self-referral, Anchor also included the outcome of a recent internal audit review that concluded it does not have sufficient understanding of the condition of its homes, with incomplete and unreliable information available on the presence of damp and mould in its homes. Anchor is also not able to demonstrate that it takes account of the needs of individuals living in homes where damp and mould has been reported.

Anchor shared an external review of its landlord health and safety compliance earlier in 2024 with the regulator when further information was sought following the self-referral. This review, as well as Anchor’s internal audit reviews, highlighted weaknesses across landlord health and safety. This included fire safety and water hygiene, with poor data quality and omissions in reported data hindering the comprehensive actioning of health and safety assessments and arising actions.

Our assessment is that there are serious failings in Anchor delivering these outcomes and significant improvement is needed. We do not have assurance that actions required from health and safety assessments are carried out within appropriate timescales. There is insufficient evidence in the design and delivery of landlord services of an effective approach to identifying the risks to tenants’ safety through assessments and then eliminating or mitigating against those risks. 

We are engaging closely with Anchor as we require it to demonstrate that steps are being taken to identify and mitigate risks to tenants as it continues to address this situation. We expect the landlord to deliver improvement at the pace and scale required and to share progress with tenants. Our ongoing engagement with the landlord will be intensive and we will seek evidence that gives us the assurance that sufficient change and progress is being made. Our priority will be that risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated.                                     

Governance – Grading Under Review – February 2025

On 18 December 2024, we published a regulatory judgement following a stability check, confirming a G1 grade for governance.

Following a self-referral by Anchor on 20 December 2024, we are investigating matters which may impact on whether the landlord continues to meet the governance elements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard. The outcome of our investigation will be confirmed in a regulatory judgement, once completed.

Viability – V1 – December 2024

Based on the relevant information and evidence we reviewed when carrying out the stability check in December 2024, our judgement is that Anchor continues to meet our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Anchor is a charitable housing association registered as a community benefit society. It is the largest operator of social housing for older people and the sixth largest residential care home operator in England.

It was formed following the merger of Hanover Housing Association and Anchor Trust in November 2018. According to the 2024 statistical data return Anchor owns around 40,400 homes in England in over 240 local authorities. Anchor reports 29 buildings between 11-18m and seven buildings at least 18m in height.

Our role and regulatory approach

We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.

We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations).

We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment.

We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page.

We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. In Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our new inspections programme from 1 April 2024. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes.

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards.

For more information about our approach to regulation, please see Regulating the standards.

Further information

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords