The Regulator of Social Housing has downgraded GreenSquareAccord (GSA) due to serious weaknesses in its financial governance, risk management, quality of information and internal controls.

The housing association, which manages around 25,500 social homes across the West Midlands, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, received G3 and V3 ratings today.

Although GSA has commissioned reviews and established improvement programmes, the regulator said it found insufficient evidence that these actions had resulted in sustainable improvement.

The RSH also confirmed GreenSquareAccord has a history of weak financial performance, failures to meet its targets, and limited capacity to absorb a reasonable range of adverse scenarios.

And while GSA remains compliant with lender covenants, continued compliance and viability is dependent on the delivery of significant disposals, cost reductions and transformation programmes.

The RSH said it would continue to engage intensively with GSA as it implements required recovery and transformation programmes and expect its board to consider all their available options to ensure its long-term viability. A failure to respond positively to RSH’s findings could lead to further regulatory action.

Jonathan Walters, RSH chief executive, said: “Landlords need both strong governance and sound finances to protect tenants and homes. In this case, our investigation has found a continued failure to address previously identified weaknesses in governance. This is unacceptable.

“Our serious concerns over GSA’s governance have undermined our assurance in the organisation’s financial resilience and long-term viability.”

GSA was placed on RSH’s gradings under review (GUR) list in May 2026 so RSH could investigate if GSA was meeting the requirements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard through responsive engagement.

The RSH has now concluded that GSA does not meet the requirements of the standards, so it has been downgraded to G3/V3 and removed from the GUR.

GSA’s delivery of the consumer standards was not part of the investigation or responsive engagement, so its C2 grade published in October 2025 remains unchanged.

GSA was formed through the merger of GreenSquare Group Limited with Accord Housing Association Limited in April 2021.

The group includes seven wholly owned unregistered subsidiaries and two joint ventures. This includes GreenSquareHomes (market sale development), LowCarbonLiving Homes Limited (a timber frame manufacturing business) and Green Square Estates Limited.

Responding to the regulator’s judgement, Ruth Cooke, GSA chief executive, said: “While we are disappointed with this outcome, we fully accept the regulator’s findings and recognise we still have work to do to deliver the ambitions set out in our ‘Simpler, Stronger, Better’ strategy and, most importantly, to continue improving outcomes for our customers.

“We have already made progress in strengthening governance, financial oversight and decision-making across the organisation, and we have a clear plan in place to deliver further improvements. We remain committed to working closely with the Regulator and demonstrating sustained progress over time.

“I want to reassure our customers that this judgement is not about the safety of their homes and does not change our commitment to providing safe, quality homes and services. We will continue to invest in our homes, meet our safety responsibilities and support our customers and communities.”

Meanwhile, the RSH has also downgraded a for-profit landlord to G4*/V4* due to issues of serious regulatory concern.

According to the regulator, Heylo Housing Registered Provider Limited (Heylo RP) has failed to protect the homes of its shared owners. It owns none of the homes, which are instead controlled by unregistered ‘investment pods’.

This has left Heylo RP dependent on its wider group to manage financial problems impacting its homes.

Added to this, it has failed to put things right despite its previous commitment to RSH.

The RSH has concluded that Heylo RP does not meet the governance or financial viability requirements of its regulatory standards. It now has the lowest possible governance and viability grades.

Two of the pods have gone into financial administration, meaning decisions about nearly 3,500 of Heylo RP’s social homes now rest with administrators.

The RSH said it does not have a formal role but is working with the administrator to support a resolution that safeguards the future of the homes.

RSH found Heylo RP has failed to ensure effective governance, risk management and financial controls, exposing its shared ownership homes to significant risks and leading to serious concerns about its viability and ability to operate independently.

Heylo RP has not provided evidence that it can continue to operate in the short term. It has also failed to demonstrate that it can manage and mitigate critical risks that might be caused by wider group members.

RSH Chief Executive Jonathan Walters said: “Heylo RP’s current business model means it can’t protect its homes and tenants. We have worked intensively with Heylo RP to get it to sort out its governance arrangements, so it can safeguard the shared ownership homes from decisions taken elsewhere in the group. Its failure to make these changes is unacceptable.

“Being a registered provider is a serious undertaking that brings significant but essential obligations. Heylo RP chose not to go through our registration process and we subsequently found serious issues. Its failure to act has placed public funds, investor funds and the reputation of the sector at risk.

“We will continue to engage intensively with Heylo RP and expect swift action to address our concerns, meet the standards and protect tenants’ homes.”

According to the regulator, the level of regulatory concern associated with a G4*/V4* grading would ordinarily result in the immediate use of regulatory and/or enforcement powers where a landlord has adequate control over its social housing homes, governance and commercial arrangements.

But as the position for Heylo RP is materially more complex due to group arrangements, the structure through which the social housing homes are held and Heylo RP’s limited ability to exercise control over the events that have led to the identified risks, RSH does not intend to immediately exercise further powers but will take action if required.

Heylo RP previously had non-compliant gradings of G3* and V3* after previously breaching the governance and viability elements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard in December 2022.

Heylo RP was attempting to take steps to address the concerns identified. However, the risks crystallised and it was placed on the gradings under review list in March 2026.

Following today’s judgement, Heylo RP has been removed from the GUR, but will remain subject to regulatory intervention due to the severity of the issues.