Non-compliant landlord continues to work on an improvement plan

Notting Hill Genesis has appointed former regulator head Matthew Bailes to its board as it seeks to regain regulatory compliance.

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Matthew Bailes has extensive experience in social housing regulation and governance

Bailes led the social housing regulator from 2011 to 2015 when it was part of the Homes and Communities Agency and more recently was chief executive of Paradigm Housing Group.

Bailes becomes the latest in a line of experienced social housing figures drafted in to help the 66,000-home landlord, which has held a non-compliant G3 governance grade since 2024.

Patrick Franco, chief executive, departed the landlord in September, with former Network boss Evans drafted in as interim.

Earlier this year CFO Mark Smith stood down and NHG brought in Ken Youngman, formerly of Family Mosaic as interim. It also last year appointed former Peabody boss Brendan Sarsfield as chair and hired Curo boss Victor da Cunha as chief customer officer, while former Livv Housing Group chief executive joined the board in February 2025.

Sarsfield said: “Matthew brings an exceptional combination of housing leadership, regulatory insight and hands-on experience of organisational transformation.

“His understanding of the challenges facing the sector, alongside his strong focus on residents, service quality and organisational performance, will add valuable experience and challenge to our board. I look forward to working with him during this pivotal year as we stabilise and transform NHG.”

NHG was downgraded to a non-compliant ‘G3’ governance grade by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in November 2024. RSH at the time found serious concerns with NHG’s business planning and risk and control frameworks that led to ‘poor outcomes’ for tenants. It found failures against the new consumer standards including a substantial backlog of overdue fire remediation actions, a lack of data on whether legal requirements had been met in a large number of third party managed buildings, a repairs backlog and a lack of accurate data.

NHG has been working on an improvement plan since the judgement. Earlier this week it announced it has now completed stock condition surveys on 89% of its homes within a five-year cycle, up from 46% in 2023/24. The percentage of buildings with both an in-date fire risk assessment (FRA) and no overdue actions has also risen to 94.8% from 63% three years ago.

NHG reported a full-year deficit of £285m in 2025/26 once non-cash items were taken into account.