Decision

Thirteen Housing Group Limited (L4522) - Regulatory Judgement: 26 March 2025

Updated 26 March 2025

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C1 Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.	First grading	March 2025
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	March 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.	Assessed and unchanged	March 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Thirteen Housing Group Limited (Thirteen) following an inspection completed in March 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C1, a governance grading of G1 and a financial viability grading of V1.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Thirteen were last updated in January 2024 following a stability check, to confirm grades of G1 and V1. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection we have concluded that overall Thirteen is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for Thirteen.

Our judgement is that Thirteen meets our governance requirements. Thirteen has provided evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of its governance arrangements and that it continues to have an effective performance and reporting framework that supports board oversight of its key risks. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for Thirteen.

Our judgement is that Thirteen meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios. Thirteen has a strong financial profile and its stress testing demonstrates that financial capacity is built into its business plan. Thirteen has provided adequate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and adequate funding is in place. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V1 grade for Thirteen.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Thirteen to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and meeting our governance and financial viability requirements, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. During the inspection we considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

As part of the inspection we observed a board meeting, a meeting of the involved tenant group, spoke to tenants, held meetings with Thirteen, including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Thirteen.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information received from Thirteen through its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C1 – March 2025

During the inspection Thirteen provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. Thirteen demonstrated it has appropriate processes in place that allow it to use a risk-based approach to identify and prioritise actions necessary to address health and safety issues in its homes. It has sought adequate assurance over these processes and the underpinning data, as part of the board’s commitment to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of tenants.

We saw evidence that Thirteen keeps an accurate record of the condition of its homes at an individual property level through physical surveys of its homes and has a process for keeping this information up to date. Thirteen uses the data it holds regarding the condition and safety of its homes to make decisions on the planning of future investments to maintain and improve homes.

Thirteen owns and manages homes in a range of tall buildings. We saw evidence that it understands the risks associated with these buildings with appropriate levels of board oversight. Thirteen has strategies in place to engage with tenants in these buildings on a regular basis. Its board has oversight of the Fire Risk Assessment programme that includes planned works and mitigating actions for these buildings where required. We saw evidence that Thirteen seeks out independent assurance over the risks present in its buildings as required.

Thirteen demonstrated that it provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs service to tenants. Whilst there are some improvements needed to meet its own targets on the timeliness of the delivery of non-emergency repairs, we saw evidence that Thirteen has plans in place to address this area of underperformance, and has assurance that these changes are delivering the required improvements. We reviewed evidence that gave us assurance that Thirteen’s approach to repairs is informed by the needs of its tenants and makes use of the tenant information it holds to tailor its services appropriately.  

We gained assurance that Thirteen works with relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour in its neighbourhoods, and we saw examples of this happening in practice. The customer committee scrutinises Thirteen’s approach to anti-social behaviour, including through interrogating trend and performance data. We saw evidence of the involved tenant group testing Thirteen’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour reports through a mystery shopping exercise and customer survey.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we gained assurance that Thirteen is working in partnership with relevant organisations and with residents to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods in which it operates.

We saw evidence that, in line with the Tenancy Standard, Thirteen reviews its lettings and allocations policy regularly to ensure all properties are let in a fair and transparent way. Thirteen’s board monitors this through a range of key performance indicators. We also saw evidence that Thirteen supports tenants to sustain their tenancies.

Overall, Thirteen’s approach is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards in relation to transparency, influence and accountability. Thirteen has a wide range of customer engagement opportunities and we saw evidence that it is delivering a collaborative approach to the design of its landlord services and actively supports a range of meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise. Tenants have opportunities to contribute their views, and we saw evidence that feedback has led to service improvements.

Thirteen has oversight of performance information on its complaints handling. We saw evidence that complaints are handled efficiently and promptly. The board and customer committee receive regular reports on complaint types and outcomes segmented by tenant data to allow for analysis to create better outcomes for tenants. The involved customer group regularly review complaints data and makes recommendations for service improvements that are implemented.

We saw evidence that Thirteen considers tenants’ diverse needs in the design and delivery of services, and that it monitors its performance in continuing to deliver outcomes to tenants in this area.

Governance – G1 – March 2025

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection there is assurance that Thirteen’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risk and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. Thirteen’s board demonstrated it considers risk appetite in strategic decision making and that performance against strategic targets is monitored and challenged.

Thirteen has provided appropriate assurance that its board proactively reviews its approach to delivering against its purpose and regularly considers alternative options for achieving value for money in making best use of resources.

Thirteen has clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. Continued governance improvement is evidenced through annual effectiveness reviews and in depth periodic external reviews, the most recent was completed in 2021. Board members’ skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of the organisation and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills to support succession planning.

Thirteen’s risk management and control framework is aligned to its strategic risks. There is evidence of robust discussion and board challenge of the controls and assurance on strategic risks being managed effectively in practice. The board actively seeks to gain an appropriate level of assurance across a range of areas. There is evidence of how this assurance has been used to make improvements including on the approach to anti-social behaviour and its repairs service.

Board ownership of stress testing, mitigation strategies and wider governance over risks through regular and structured review of golden rules is evidenced. Reporting to board provides sufficient detail for the board to ensure effective oversight.  

Viability – V1 – March 2025

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection, we have concluded there is appropriate assurance that Thirteen’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. Thirteen has evidenced that it has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place to support its financial plans, and forecasts that it will continue to meet its financial covenants under a wide range of adverse scenarios.

We have appropriate assurance that Thirteen’s board has effective oversight of loan covenant compliance and there is evidence of strong levels of forecast headroom with no reliance on sales income. Thirteen forecasts strong interest cover, whilst continuing to deliver its development programme and investing in existing stock.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Thirteen is an exempt, charitable community benefit society, owning and managing around 34,791 homes predominantly in the North East and Yorkshire

Thirteen is the asset holding group parent and the only RSH registered entity in its group. It is a non-profit registered provider of social housing. It has four unregistered subsidiaries:

• Thirteen Homes Limited,
• Thirteen Commercial Services,
• Thirteen Property Development Limited, and
• Thirteen Social Enterprise Limited.

At 31 March 2024, Thirteen employed 1,505 full-time equivalent staff and group turnover was £207.3m. It aims to develop over 2,000 homes between 2023 and 2028.

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