L&G Affordable Homes’ for-profit RPs get highest grades across the board in first regulatory judgements

The seven for-profit registered providers owned by L&G Affordable Homes have all been given the highest marks for every measure in their first regulatory judgement.

The entities have been handed compliant V1, G1, and C1 grades for financial viability, governance and consumer performance by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The seven providers form part of the wider L&G Affordable Homes business which owns 6,250 homes across England, which has L&G Group PLC as its ultimate parent.

The regulator found that L&G’s for-profit providers governance arrangements are working effectively in practice to identify and manage financial and non-financial risks. They are also judged to be meeting viability requirements and have the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios and is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards.

The institutional investor has multiple RPs to ensure that a wider variety of funders, who may only want to invest in a particular type of housing, can do so without pricing in extra risk or complexity that would push up costs for L&G (see box below).

The judgement comes days after L&G announced a new joint venture investment partnership with Hyde Group which will launch with the transfer of 1,000 shared ownership properties 

In other judgements today, Guildford Borough Council became the first local authority to move from a C3 consumer grade -which means there are serious failings - to the top compliant C1 rating.

Guildford was graded C3 in July 2024 after a self-referral in December 2023. This was a result of the regulator found potential failings around repairs, health and safety compliance and collection of its Tenant Satisfaction Measures information.

But today the RSH said Guildford has carried out an improvement plan and has demonstrated it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards.

“It is now also making effective use of systems to identify and address potential issues and areas for further improvement at the standard required”, it said.

Connexus Group, which manages around 11,000 home in the west midlands, was handed a non-compliant C3 consumer grade. RSH found the provider was not able to provide assurance that its stock condition surveys had consistently included an assessment of hazards. It also identified gaps in understanding the condition of its homes. RSH also found Connexus needs to do more work to ensure its repairs service meets Connexus’ own targets and that it needs to improve its understanding of the diverse needs of its tenants. On complaints it also said Connexus “often does not meet the timescales set out in the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.”

Kate Smith, chief executive at Connexus, said: “Connexus is on a long improvement journey following the launch of our corporate plan last year, and we recognise that our new customer centric and data led approach is not fully embedded and delivering outcomes for customers yet. The judgement references our awareness of this in several areas, and we are committed to working with the Regulator to evidence our new approach.”

In total 21 judgements were issued today by RSH (see table below).

Latest Regulator of Social Housing regulatory judgements: