Decision

Havebury Homes (LH4339): Regulatory Judgement - 12 November 2025

Published 12 November 2025

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	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.	Based on previous assessment	September 2024
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	November 2025
Viability	V2 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements. It has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.	Assessed and unchanged	November 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Havebury Homes (Havebury) following a stability check completed in November 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2. Havebury has a confirmed consumer grade of C1 from a planned inspection completed in September 2024.

Summary of the decision

Based on the relevant information and evidence we reviewed in carrying out the stability check, our judgement is that Havebury meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. However, it needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance. We have therefore concluded the landlord’s grade is unchanged and issue a V2 grade for Havebury.

From the stability check, there is no evidence to indicate a change in governance grade is required. Havebury’s governance grade remains G1.

This regulatory judgement is based on a stability check which does not include a reassessment of Havebury’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the landlord’s most recent consumer, governance and viability grades were C1, G1 and V2, which were issued in September 2024 following an inspection. During the inspection, we considered all four of the consumer standards: the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, the Safety and Quality Standard, the Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection we observed a board meeting and a tenant scrutiny committee, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Havebury including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Havebury.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out a stability check of Havebury as part of our annual stability check programme.

Our judgement about how well Havebury is delivering the viability outcomes of our Governance and Financial Viability Standard is based on a review of a range of documents provided by Havebury, as well as analysis of information supplied by Havebury in its regulatory returns.

In confirming Havebury’s governance grade as part of the stability check, our work was limited to verifying that the information contained in Havebury’s regulatory returns did not appear inconsistent with its existing published governance grade.

Our stability checks do not assess a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards.

Summary of findings

Consumer – C1  - September 2024

Below are the findings of our most recent regulatory judgement about Havebury’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards, which assessed Havebury’s consumer grade as C1. The regulatory judgement was issued in September 2024 following a programmed inspection.

During the inspection Havebury provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated areas.

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

Havebury has demonstrated it provides an effective repairs and maintenance service that responds appropriately to the urgency of works, and tenant vulnerabilities and is taking action to further improve the service and outcomes for tenants.

We gained assurance that Havebury promotes the safety of its communities and cooperates with relevant partners to promote social, environmental, and economic wellbeing in the areas where it provides social housing. Havebury’s complaint handling approach is accessible and publicised to tenants, with performance monitored by its resident experience committee. We saw evidence that Havebury has a process in place to ensure that it learns from complaints and uses performance information to make improvements, such as changes to its handling of anti-social behaviour cases.

We saw evidence that Havebury’s homes are let in a fair and transparent way, with an allocations process that considers potential tenants’ needs to promote tenancy sustainment. A support fund and specialist officers are available to help those in need throughout their tenancy. Havebury has a risk-based approach to tenancy audits, focusing on vulnerable tenants and potential tenancy fraud.

Havebury gathers tenants’ views in a range of ways, providing meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies, and services. Consultations have received good response rates from tenants, with evidence of Havebury using this information to make changes to services. Havebury has identified where there could be improvements made to its tenant engagement and is responding accordingly.

There is evidence of Havebury using the tenant information it holds to tailor services to meet tenants’ diverse needs and deliver fair and equitable outcomes. Havebury recognises that this is an area that requires continuing development, and work is ongoing to build on the information received through its tenant survey in late 2023. Clear and accessible information is provided to tenants about Havebury’s services and performance, allowing tenants to understand what to expect and scrutinise how well Havebury is delivering those services.

Governance – G1 - November 2025

From the stability check, there is no evidence to indicate that a change in governance grade is required.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, we issued a regulatory judgement in September 2024 following a programmed inspection of Havebury. Below are the findings in that judgement about Havebury’s delivery of our governance requirements.

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection we have assurance that Havebury’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to continue to deliver its objectives.

Comprehensive risk monitoring and performance reporting supports the board, enabling constructive challenge on key policies, decisions, and any underperformance against key performance indicators. Evidence of this was seen through board observation, meetings, and reviewing documents provided by Havebury.

We saw evidence that the board is effectively managing and scrutinising its financial position, with appropriate oversight and approval of financial plans, strategies, and policies. Decision making is supported by robust stress testing, carried out against identified risks across a range of scenarios, with appropriate mitigation strategies. The relationship between the board and its committees is working in line with its delegations to strengthen assurance in key areas of risk and compliance. Oversight of development risks and shared ownership sales exposure is delegated to the homes and investment committee, with appropriate escalation to the board.

Board member skills and experience align to Havebury’s activities and risk profile, with regular effectiveness reviews. The internal audit programme is aligned to its key risks and operations, providing independent assurance on the effectiveness of its risk management, governance, and internal controls.

Viability – V2 - November 2025

Based on evidence gained from the stability check, we have assurance that Havebury meets the viability requirements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.

Havebury’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. Havebury has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants.

Havebury is investing in its existing homes to improve the quality and energy efficiency while continuing to develop new homes. In addition to delivering this investment, Havebury anticipates generating surpluses from the shared ownership sales, which represents an uncertain cashflow and a risk to delivering the planned financial position. Havebury’s stress testing demonstrates that it has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of exposures, but it will need to manage these material risks.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

According to the 2025 statistical data return Havebury owns 7,725 homes across Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

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 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