Two London ALMOs have received C1 gradings from the Regulator of Social Housing in the latest batch of regulatory judgements.

Bucking the general trend of lower gradings for local authorities, Barnet Homes and Sutton Housing Partnership received top marks from the regulator for meeting the consumer standards.

Alistair McIntosh, chief executive of HQN, which worked with both organisations in the lead up to their inspections, said: “It’s great to see the ALMOs roaring back. The top ratings from the regulator are really well deserved.

“We’ve seen first hand the good work of Barnet and Sutton on the ground. So, we’re very pleased for them. And we know they will not rest on their laurels. There is more to come.”

For Barnet Council, the C1 grading justifies its decision to grant a 10-year extension to Barnet Homes’ management agreement.

Councillor Ross Houston, Barnet’s cabinet member for homes and regeneration, said: “We welcome and are encouraged by the findings from the Regulator of Social Housing, which demonstrate the progress Barnet Homes has made in improving housing services over recent years.

“We recognise the important contribution the council’s tenants make in holding Barnet Homes and the council to account and in helping to shape the housing services and influence decision-making, and that the inspection result reflects this area of strength.

He added: “The inspection has provided an opportunity to reflect on and feel proud about what works well, whilst also understanding how we can continue to improve. We know there is still much to do to make sure tenants receive the best possible service.

“Our improvement plans remain underway, and we are committed to continuing to work with tenants to make sure their voices are heard, meet diverse needs, and shape better services.

“Thank you to all the tenants and staff who contributed to the inspection process.”

Commenting on Sutton’s C1 grading, Jake Short, the council’s lead member for housing said: “This outcome shows that we are delivering on our promise to provide safe, high-quality homes alongside excellent services for our residents. With over 500 council homes set to be built in the next five years, we are doing all we can to improve access to good, quality, affordable social housing that we know our residents need.

“This inspection has also highlighted the value of listening to our residents, and we are committed to using their invaluable feedback to continuously learn, improve, and shape even better services for the future. I would like to congratulate everyone at the council and Sutton Housing Partnership on this fantastic achievement. ”

Meanwhile, the Regulator of Social Housing downgraded Phoenix Community Housing Association to G3, meaning that the landlord does not meet the governance requirements and there are “issues of serious regulatory concern”.

Phoenix failed to make sure systems and controls were sufficiently robust to ensure timely payments were being made and ensure continued covenant compliance, despite previous findings by RSH that Phoenix needed to increase the effectiveness of its internal controls.

RSH also found that Phoenix failed to address skills gaps and changes in the board in a timely manner and that gaps in resourcing and oversight impacted the effectiveness of its governance arrangements.

While Phoenix has managed its position with funders to avoid default, the failings were so serious that RSH has concluded significant improvement is needed.

Phoenix had its consumer grading downgraded to C2, meaning there are some weaknesses and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard.

Phoenix continues to meet the financial viability requirements and its V2 viability grading remained unchanged, meaning it has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios.

In a joint statement, Phoenix’s new chair Gavin Wallen and chief executive Denise Fowler, said: “We recognise that there is a lot of work for our board and our organisation to do. With a new chair, strengthened board, our excellent staff team and our exceptionally high resident satisfaction and engagement, we can address the issues identified in this judgement. Our financial position also remains strong.

“We are committed to working with the regulator to ensure that Phoenix continues to thrive as a resident-led community gateway, delivering on our vision that ‘Together, we are building a better future for our Phoenix Community’.”

RSH also published a number of other regulatory judgements, including downgrading GreenSquareAccord from G1 to G2. An inspection found that GreenSquareAccord needed to improve aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance, specifically in relation to board oversight of operational delivery and risk and strengthening its internal control arrangements. GreenSquareAccord also received C2/V2 gradings.

Elsewhere, North East Derbyshire District Council received a C1 grading while the London Borough of Hounslow received a C2, meaning there are some weaknesses in its delivery of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.

Clarion Housing Group received C2/G1/V1 gradings and Honeycomb Group received C2/G1/V2 gradings.

RSH has also published outcomes for the first of this year’s annual stability checks, including Lincolnshire Housing Partnership Limited, Advance Housing and Support Limited, Teign Housing, and Two Rivers Housing. All retained their existing governance and viability gradings.

Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH, said: “Good governance is vital for managing risk properly and making the right strategic decisions.

“We will continue to use our regulatory powers to scrutinise the sector and hold landlords to account.”

Latest RSH judgements:

Landlord	Consumer	Governance	Viability	Route
Advance Housing and Support Limited	N/A	G1	V1	Stability Check
London Borough of Barnet	C1			Inspection
Clarion Housing Group Limited	C2	G1	V1 (regrade from V2)	Inspection
GreenSquareAccord Limited	C2	G2 (downgrade)	V2	Inspection
Honeycomb Group Limited	C2	G1 (upgrade)	V2	Inspection
London Borough of Hounslow	C2			Inspection
Lincolnshire Housing Partnership Limited	C2 (based on previous assessment)	G1	V2	Stability Check
North East Derbyshire District Council	C1			Responsive Engagement
Phoenix Community Housing Association (Bellingham and Downham) Limited	C2 (downgrade)	G3 (downgrade)	V2	Responsive Engagement
London Borough of Sutton	C1			Inspection
Teign Housing	C2 (based on previous assessment)	G1	V2	Stability Check
Two Rivers Housing	N/A	G1	V1	Stability Check