Decision

Arawak Walton Housing Association Limited (L3713) - Regulatory Judgement: 25 March 2026

Updated 25 March 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C2 Our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.	First grading	March 2026
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	March 2026
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	March 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Arawak Walton Housing Association Limited (Arawak Walton) following an inspection completed in March 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C2, a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Arawak Walton were last updated in December 2024 following a stability check and responsive engagement, which confirmed a G1 grade for governance and a regrade from V1 to V2 for financial viability. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the assurance gained during the inspection, based on the evidence provided by Arawak Walton, we have concluded that there are some weaknesses in Arawak Walton delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality, Neighbourhood and Community, and Transparency, Influence and Accountability standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Arawak Walton.

Our judgement is that Arawak Walton meets our governance requirements. Arawak Walton has provided evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of its governance arrangements and that it continues to effectively manage the risks of its activities, allowing it to deliver its strategic and charitable objectives. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for Arawak Walton.

Our judgement is that Arawak Walton meets our financial viability requirements. Arawak Walton is meeting its loan covenants, has an adequately funded business plan and maintains sufficient liquidity to support the delivery of its financial strategy. We have assurance that Arawak Walton’s financial plans are based on reasonable assumptions and that it can manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, supported by established stress testing and mitigation arrangements. However, Arawak Walton’s limited cash headroom against its most restrictive interest cover covenant, together with sensitivity to cost inflation and unplanned expenditure, limit its financial flexibility. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for Arawak Walton.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection to assess how well Arawak Walton is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and meeting our governance and financial viability requirements, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. During the inspection, we considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection we observed Arawak Walton’s board meeting and tenant executive committee, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Arawak Walton including its non-executive directors, interviewed staff, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Arawak Walton. 

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by Arawak Walton in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer - C2 - March 2026

In relation to the Safety and Quality standard, Arawak Walton has made meaningful progress in strengthening its understanding of the condition of its homes. Arawak Walton’s accelerated programme of surveys on the condition of its homes has significantly improved the completeness of the information it holds about the condition of its homes. Arawak Walton also has arrangements in place to sustain the robustness and accuracy of this information through a rolling programme and independent validation. Arawak Walton uses this information to inform investment planning and prioritisation. However, reporting does not always provide a clear or comparable view of performance over time, particularly in relation to decency, damp and mould, and wider indicators of the condition of its homes.

Arawak Walton demonstrated that it meets legal health and safety requirements, particularly in relation to gas, fire, asbestos, legionella and lift safety. Oversight of fire safety actions is well established, and Arawak Walton has shown that where issues are identified it acts promptly and transparently. However, across other areas of health and safety, tracking and reporting of remedial actions is inconsistent, and does not routinely set out the duration or priority of outstanding actions. Arawak Walton has recognised this weakness and has taken initial steps to strengthen reporting.

Arawak Walton’s repairs and maintenance service is performing well overall. Core repairs response times are strong, emergency repairs are consistently completed within targets, and this is reflected in the reported tenant satisfaction levels. Arawak Walton has taken steps to improve damp and mould handling and is now reporting that it meets required timescales to investigate, identify and repair hazards like damp and mould. However, weaknesses in managing and recording initial safety remedial actions and follow on work mean that routine damp and mould completion timescales still require improvement. Customer service responsiveness has improved but remains outside internal performance targets.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Arawak Walton maintains a visible neighbourhood presence and works effectively with local partners to address anti-social behaviour and support safe communities in the areas where it provides homes. However, low levels of anti-social behaviour reporting reduce overall assurance. Planned improvements to policies, reporting and tenant awareness should help strengthen its performance against this standard.

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, tenants told us that they feel treated with fairness and respect, and we saw evidence of strong local engagement through Arawak Walton’s neighbourhood operating model. The introduction of the Tenant Experience Committee has strengthened the route for tenant engagement at governance level, and Arawak Walton has taken steps to broaden opportunities for resident involvement. However, Arawak Walton’s engagement approach continues to rely on a limited pool of engaged tenants, and there is insufficient evidence that insight from the wider tenant population is informing service design or strategic decision making. Arawak Walton holds comprehensive tenant demographic information, however this information is not used systematically to understand whether its services achieve equitable outcomes or to shape service development, limiting assurance that tenant influence is representative of the wider tenant body.

Arawak Walton’s provision of performance information to tenants is inconsistent. While the annual report and tenant satisfaction reporting are evident, ongoing reporting is limited, and aspects of Arawak Walton’s website are difficult to navigate or contain outdated information. Planned improvements, including the introduction of a tenant portal, provide an opportunity to strengthen accessibility and transparency.

Arawak Walton’s approach to complaints handling aligns with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, and oversight is supported by board reporting and a complaints learning framework.

Arawak Walton is demonstrating a clear commitment to improvement and has work underway across several areas of weakness. However, gaps in reporting, information quality, oversight of remedial actions and the systematic use of tenant insight mean that Arawak Walton is not yet able to evidence full delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards.

Governance - G1 - March 2026

During the inspection we saw evidence that Arawak Walton’s governance arrangements allow it to effectively manage its risks and enable clear oversight, control and direction for delivering its strategic objectives. 

Arawak Walton’s board and executive team demonstrated they have the skills and capacity to deliver the organisation’s corporate strategy, supported by an established performance and reporting framework. Arawak Walton has a robust risk management and internal controls environment, with appropriate board reporting in place. Arawak Walton’s board is actively managing upcoming turnover through succession planning, annual appraisals, skills assessments and periodic external governance reviews. Arawak Walton will need to ensure that forward planning is fully embedded so that board renewal is completed in a timely manner.

Stress testing is comprehensive for an organisation of this size and is used to inform strategic and financial decisions. Internal audit coverage is appropriately aligned to key risks and has provided reasonable to substantial assurance across core areas.

Overall, we found that Arawak Walton’s governance arrangements remain effective and support sound oversight, risk management and strategic delivery.

Viability - V2 - March 2026

Arawak Walton’s financial plans are based on reasonable assumptions, and the organisation continues to forecast that it will meet all lender covenants. Reporting on financial and treasury matters is transparent, and the board has strong ownership of the business plan, stress testing and mitigation strategies.

Stress testing is comprehensive and linked to Arawak Walton’s risk register. The scenarios tested are appropriate to the organisation’s size and operating context. Stress testing demonstrates that Arawak Walton can withstand a reasonable range of adverse events, however several scenarios would result in covenant breaches without timely and significant management action. Cash headroom to loan covenant performance requirements is limited in the early years of Arawak Walton’s plan, and increases in stock investment requirements have further constrained financial flexibility.

Arawak Walton has sufficient liquidity in place to support its business plan requirements over the medium term, and treasury arrangements were recently independently assessed as providing substantial assurance. The board has taken steps to strengthen financial resilience, including reviewing mitigation options and re‑profiling expenditure where appropriate.

Based on the evidence obtained during the inspection, we found that Arawak Walton understands its financial risks and has credible mitigation plans. However, the organisation remains exposed to downside risk and has limited capacity to absorb shocks without material management action.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Arawak Walton is a charitable community benefit society focused on the delivery of landlord services primarily for people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Arawak Walton owns and manages 1,178 social housing homes mainly in the inner Manchester area, including general needs, sheltered and supported housing.

Arawak Walton operates as a small, single‑entity charitable community benefit society, with no subsidiaries or commercial group structures.

Arawak Walton has 29 full-time employees and reported a turnover of £6.9m for the year ended 31 March 2025. It plans to develop around 50 additional homes over the next five years.

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