Decision

Weaver Vale Housing Trust Limited (L4341) - Regulatory Judgement: 28 August 2024

Updated 28 August 2024

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Judgement / grade	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	August 2024
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	August 2024
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	August 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Weaver Vale Housing Trust Limited (WVHT) following an inspection completed in August 2024.

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 WVHT were last updated in November 2023 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, it is our judgement that overall WVHT is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for WVHT.

Our judgement is that WVHT meets our governance requirements. The board and leadership team have the skills and capacity to deliver WVHT’s strategic objectives, with effective risk management and performance and reporting frameworks in place to support this. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for WVHT.

Our judgement is that WVHT meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios. WVHT has provided appropriate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and adequate funding in place. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V1 grade.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of WVHT to assess how well WVHT 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.

During the inspection we observed a board meeting and one of WVHT’s tenant influence and scrutiny panels. We also spoke to tenants, held meetings with WVHT including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by WVHT.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by WVHT in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C1 – August 2024

During the inspection WVHT provided evidence-based assurance that it has a good understanding of its compliance with health and safety requirements and has appropriate systems for ensuring the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.

There is evidence that WVHT keeps an accurate record of the condition of its homes at an individual property level through physical surveys of all homes and has a process for keeping this information up to date. WVHT has provided evidence that it uses its understanding of the quality and safety of tenants’ homes to make decisions on future investment to maintain and improve homes.

WVHT has demonstrated that it provides an effective repairs service to tenants and takes action to improve the service and outcomes for tenants when issues occur. WVHT has made proactive, tenant focused improvements to the repairs service to deliver better outcomes for tenants.

WVHT has provided appropriate evidence that it is making effective use of its performance and insight information to shape services. WVHT regularly reviews performance information on complaints handling. It has provided evidence that it learns from information on complaint types and outcomes and uses it to make improvements. 

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we saw evidence that WVHT provides a wide range of opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise its strategies, policies and services. There are clear arrangements in place for tenant engagement that are well supported by WVHT. There is also evidence that feedback from tenants has been used to help shape the design and delivery of services, and that WVHT actively considers tenants’ diverse needs.

Governance – G1 – August 2024

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection, there is assurance that WVHT’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to continue meeting its objectives.

We saw evidence that WVHT has a risk management and control framework that aligns to its strategic risks. There is evidence of risk being managed effectively in practice. There is also evidence of board discussion and challenge on WVHT’s performance against its strategic objectives, and board oversight of controls and assurance on its strategic risks. 

WVHT provided appropriate assurance that it has established and maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. There is evidence that the relationship between its board and committees is working in line with its delegations to strengthen assurance in the main areas of risk and compliance.

WVHT provided evidence of annual board effectiveness reviews and periodic in-depth external governance reviews to support continuous improvement of its governance arrangements. The most recent external governance review took place in July 2023 and we saw evidence that WVHT has implemented its recommendations.

WVHT’s board actively seeks and gains an appropriate level of assurance across a range of areas. There is evidence that this assurance has been used to make continuous improvements to its landlord services, including its approach to damp and mould, and landlord health and safety.

Board member skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of the organisation and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills, which feeds into succession planning. We have seen evidence of this through board observation, meetings with non-executive directors and executive team members as well as reviewing relevant documents including meeting minutes.

Viability – V1 – August 2024

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection, we have concluded that there is appropriate assurance that WVHT’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. WVHT 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 WVHT’s board has effective oversight of loan covenant compliance and there is evidence that it has proactively implemented mitigations to maintain good levels of forecast headroom. WVHT forecasts strong interest cover, while continuing to deliver its development programme and investing in existing stock.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Formed as a result of a stock transfer from Vale Royal Borough Council in 2002, WVHT is an exempt charity registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. WVHT manages and develops social housing, with over 90% of its turnover from social housing lettings and the rest of its income from ancillary services and shared ownership sales.

WVHT is the only RSH registered entity in its group and is a non-profit registered provider of social housing. WVHT has one unregistered entity, Weaver Horizons Limited.

WVHT operates across three local authority areas. It owns and manages around 6,500 social housing homes, the majority of which are located in Cheshire West and Chester, with around 250 homes across Cheshire East and Warrington.

Based on unaudited accounts for 2023/24, WVHT reported turnover of £39.3m for the year ended 31 March 2024 and employs 287 full-time equivalent staff. WVHT plans to develop 500 new homes by 2029.

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