Decision

Portus Supported Housing Limited (4718) - Interim Regulatory Judgement: 29 April 2026

Published 29 April 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer		Not assessed yet
Governance	G3 Our judgement is that the landlord does not meet our governance requirements. There are issues of serious regulatory concern and in agreement with us the landlord is working to improve its position.	Interim grading	April 2026
Rent	There have been serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the Rent Standard and significant improvement is needed.	Interim grading	April 2026
Viability	V3 Our judgement is that the landlord does not meet our viability requirements. There are issues of serious regulatory concern and in agreement with us the landlord is working to improve its position.	Interim grading	April 2026

Reason for publication

Portus Supported Housing Limited was created by a transfer of engagements of Westmoreland Supported Housing Limited (Westmoreland Supported Housing) into Bespoke Supportive Tenancies Ltd (BeST) on 1 December 2025. On the same date BeST changed its name to Portus Supported Housing Limited (Portus).

We are publishing an interim regulatory judgement for Portus following these changes.

This interim regulatory judgement confirms a governance grade of G3, a financial viability grade of V3 and reconfirms that there are serious failings in how Portus is delivering the outcomes of the Rent Standard.

Prior to this interim regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Westmoreland Supported Housing were last updated in September 2019, which confirmed a governance grade of G4 and a financial viability grade of V3. A regulatory notice was published in October 2020 concluding that Westmoreland Supported Housing was not delivering the outcomes of the Rent Standard.

A regulatory notice published in May 2019 for BeST confirmed that it was not delivering the governance or viability outcomes of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard and that there were serious failings in its delivery of the Rent Standard. At the time the regulatory notice was published, BeST had fewer than 1,000 units and was classed as a small provider. At that time, we did not publish regulatory judgements for providers which fell into this category. Instead, in the interests of transparency, we published a regulatory notice where there was evidence that a small registered provider was not meeting the regulatory standards. The regulatory notice relating to BeST was published under those arrangements.

Summary of the decision

Our judgement is that Portus does not meet our governance requirements. BeST was judged to not meet our governance requirements in September 2019. Westmoreland Supported Housing was downgraded to G4 in September 2019 due to creditor action taken against it, which led us to use statutory enforcement action to appoint three new officers to the board. Westmoreland Supported Housing has since restructured its business plan and has strengthened its governing body. As a result, we have concluded an interim governance grade of G3 for Portus.

Our judgement is that Portus does not meet our financial viability requirements. Considering the previous grades and based on our review of further relevant information and evidence, we have concluded an interim viability grade of V3.

A regulatory notice for BeST in May 2019 and Westmoreland Supported Housing in October 2020 concluded that there were serious failings in the delivery of the outcomes of the Rent Standard. We continue to lack assurance that Portus is delivering the outcomes of the Rent Standard.

How we reached our judgement

Following the changes to create Portus as described above, we carried out an assessment to consider its interim grades. This is based on the previous grades for Westmoreland Supported Housing and the serious failings identified in the regulatory notices for both BeST and Westmoreland Supported Housing. We have been engaging intensively with both BeST and Westmoreland Supported Housing since their earlier regulatory notices and judgements. We have considered this information to form an interim judgement for Portus.

We will change interim grades to standard grades following a programmed inspection, or when we have carried out an assessment following responsive engagement.

Summary of findings

Governance – Interim Grade – G3 – April 2026

During our engagement BeST and Westmoreland Supported Housing have taken steps to address the serious failings in their delivery of our governance requirements. Portus recognises that it needs to make further improvements to provide assurance that it has addressed the relevant failings.

Portus operates long term indexed linked lease arrangements with the private sector to acquire homes that are then used to provide accommodation to tenants meeting its allocation criteria. The leases are on terms which mean that income collection, maintenance and repair and operating cost risks are transferred to Portus.

Portus has shown it can manage some of the risks relating to ongoing repairs and maintenance, and periods when homes are empty and no rent is paid. However, Portus has not provided assurance that its current risk management arrangements allow it to manage the risks of its contractual obligations over their contract term.

Portus’s stress testing and scenario planning identifies that the crystallisation of risks and the combination of risks on a reasonable range of adverse scenarios has significant impact upon the organisation’s ability to operate over the long term. Portus is continuing to develop its mitigation strategies to evidence how it will manage these risks and protect the interests of its tenants.

Portus continues to engage positively with us and acknowledges the serious regulatory concerns identified. We will continue to work intensively with Portus to ensure the issues identified in our previous regulatory judgement and regulatory notice for Westmoreland Supported Housing and BeST respectively, and summarised in this interim regulatory judgement for Portus, are fully addressed.

Rent – Interim Judgement – Serious failings in delivering outcomes – April 2026

Portus maintains that most of its homes are ‘excepted’ from the requirements of the Rent Standard by meeting the specialist supported housing criteria. The previous regulatory notices for Westmoreland Supported Housing and BeST set out the identified serious failings in their delivery of the outcomes of the Rent Standard. We continue to lack assurance on how the board has satisfied itself that it is meeting relevant legal and regulatory rent-setting requirements. Portus continues to engage with us to provide assurance over its rents.

Viability – Interim Grade – V3 – April 2026

The previous financial viability grade issued to Westmoreland Supported Housing was V3 as it was unable to evidence that it had a credible business plan that was based on appropriate and reasonable assumptions. Similarly, the previous regulatory notice for BeST set out that there was a lack of assurance that it had taken a suitably long-term view on managing risks associated with its strategy and it did not have a long-term financial plan in place underpinned by appropriate assumptions. We lacked evidence that either organisation undertook robust stress testing against a range of scenarios and had appropriate mitigation strategies in place to ensure long term viability.

Portus has shown improvement in these areas, with the board demonstrating an understanding of the risks associated with its long-term viability. However, Portus has not yet evidenced that it can manage these risks and is continuing to develop its mitigation strategies.

We lack assurance that Portus’s business plans are based on reasonable assumptions, as the current business plan relies on its homes being ‘excepted’ from the Rent Standard by meeting the specialist supported housing criteria. We continue to lack assurance on how the board has satisfied itself that it is meeting relevant rent-setting rules and therefore that its income assumptions are robust.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Portus is a not-for-profit registered provider, formed on 1 December 2025 after the transfer of engagements from Westmoreland Supported Housing Limited into Bespoke Supportive Tenancies Ltd, which was then renamed as Portus Supported Housing Limited.

According to the 2025 statistical data return, BeST reported 1,381 supported housing homes and Westmoreland Supported Housing reported 948 supported housing homes; a total of 2,329 homes. Portus operates nationally.

Portus has one unregistered subsidiary, Portus Property Management Limited, which provides repairs and maintenance services to Portus.

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