Decision

Trident Housing Association Limited (L0979) - Regulatory Judgement: 18 December 2024

Updated 18 December 2024

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer		Not assessed yet
Governance	G2 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements but needs to improve some aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance.	Assessed and unchanged	December 2024
Rent	Our judgement is that there have been serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the Rent Standard and significant improvement is needed.	New judgement	December 2024
Viability	V2 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements. It has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.	Assessed and unchanged	December 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Trident Housing Association Limited (Trident) following responsive engagement that focussed on how it is meeting the requirements of the Rent Standard. We have also completed a stability check review against the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.

This regulatory judgement confirms that there have been serious failings in how Trident has delivered the outcomes of the Rent Standard, and we do not have assurance that it was previously compliant with the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 (the Act).

This regulatory judgement confirms a governance grading of G2 and a financial viability grading of V2.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Trident were last updated in January 2024 following responsive engagement to downgrade the governance grading to G2 and a stability check review to confirm the existing viability grade of V2.

Summary of the decision

Our judgement is that Trident meets our governance requirements but needs to improve some aspects of its oversight of risk and internal controls to ensure continued compliance. From the stability check review, there is no evidence to indicate a change in governance grading is required. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G2 grade for Trident.

Our judgement is that there have been serious failings in how Trident has delivered the outcomes of the Rent Standard, and we do not have assurance that Trident was previously compliant with the Act. Trident identified, through an independent review, that errors had been made in a significant number of rents charged to tenants. We concluded that Trident had not met requirements relating to the setting of rent in line with formula rent, multiple errors had been made in some rents including for affordable rents at tenancy commencement. Requirements for setting and reviewing fair rents had also not been followed.

Our judgement is that Trident meets our financial viability requirements. Trident has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance. We have therefore issued a V2 for Trident.

How we reached our judgement

We began our responsive engagement with Trident in response to a self-referral by Trident in June 2024, following the conclusion of its review of rent setting. Our engagement with Trident focused on the findings of the review in relation to the range, duration and significance of errors in rents charged to tenants.

This responsive engagement included reviewing documents provided by Trident and discussions with Trident’s executive team. Our judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the responsive engagement process, as well as information supplied by Trident as part of Trident’s regulatory returns.

We have also carried out a stability check review to assess whether there are any material risks that may result in a change to Trident’s financial viability or governance gradings. Our stability check review concluded in December 2024.

In assessing Trident’s governance grade as part of the stability check review, our work was limited to verifying that the information contained in the regulatory returns did not appear inconsistent with the Trident’s existing published governance grade.

We have not yet assessed this landlord against the consumer standards.

Summary of findings  

Governance – G2 – December 2024

From the stability check review, there is no evidence to indicate a change in governance grading is required.

Rent – Not meeting outcomes – December 2024

The self-referral from Trident in June 2024 related to a failure to meet the requirements of the Rent Standard and a failure to comply with the legal requirements of the Act, in particular:

• rent set higher than the formula rent ceiling (for general needs, fair rent and supported housing)
• rent increase exceeds the RSH limit (for general needs, fair rent and supported housing)
• rent set higher than the fair rent determination
• affordable rent set incorrectly at tenancy commencement.

Trident confirms that a total of 519 tenancies have not complied with the Rent Standard for the above reasons. Many of these have multiple errors across the above areas and over several years.  

Taking into account the number of the errors made by Trident, over an extended period of time, and the potential impact on tenants, we have concluded that there have been serious failings in how Trident has delivered the outcomes of the Rent Standard, and we do not have assurance that it was previously compliant with the Act.

Trident has been transparent and is engaging constructively with us. It has sought appropriate external advice in respect of the errors and is taking steps to contact tenants to make them aware of the issue. It has rectified its rents from April 2024 and has developed a recovery plan for addressing previous over charging and making refunds to tenants.

We are engaging with Trident as it continues to address the issues that led to these errors. Our engagement includes ongoing monitoring of the delivery of its recovery plan, and we will seek evidence to give us the assurance that sufficient change and improvement is being made. Our priority will be that any relevant risks to tenants are adequately managed and mitigated and to ensure that affected tenants have appropriate redress.

Viability – V2 – December 2024

Based on evidence gained from the 2024 stability check review, we have assurance that Trident’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy.

Trident has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place, and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants. Trident has the capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, but it will need to manage these material risks to ensure continued compliance.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Trident is a community benefit society and a provider of housing and care services. Trident has two unregistered subsidiaries. Trident Reach is a registered charity offering care and support to residents across the Midlands. Trident Star is a company limited by shares that manages a small portfolio of shops and an office within Trident’s estates. 

At 31 March 2024, the group owned 3,202 homes predominantly in the West Midlands and Derbyshire and reported a turnover of £43.8m. Trident plans to develop 28 homes in 2024/25.

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