Decision

Bournemouth Churches Housing Association Limited (LH0155) - Regulatory Judgement: 24 September 2025

Updated 24 September 2025

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	September 2025
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	September 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	September 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Bournemouth Churches Housing Association Limited (BCHA) following an inspection completed in September 2025.

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 BCHA were last updated in November 2024 following a stability check which confirmed grades of G1 and V2. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

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

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

Our judgement is that BCHA meets our financial viability requirements and has capacity to manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. However, BCHA needs to manage its material risks, including in relation to its supported housing contracts and its development of new homes. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for BCHA.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of BCHA to assess how well it 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 a board meeting, a customer steering group meeting and a customer reference panel meeting, spoke with tenants, held meetings with BCHA including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by BCHA.

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

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – September 2025 

During the inspection, we received evidence and assurance that BCHA meets the requirements of the Safety and Quality Standard. BCHA provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. BCHA is meeting landlord health and safety requirements, including delivering actions from assessments and compliance with legal health and safety requirements, and the Decent Homes Standard. The board demonstrated that it has sufficient oversight of landlord health and safety compliance.

We saw evidence that BCHA has accurate up-to-date records of the condition of its homes at an individual property level through physical surveys and has a process for keeping this information up to date. BCHA also demonstrated that the information held on the quality and safety of its homes informs decisions on future investment to maintain and improve the condition of its homes.

BCHA demonstrated that it provides an effective and efficient repairs, maintenance and planned improvement service for the homes and communal areas for which it is responsible, with work ongoing to improve the timeliness of its emergency repairs service.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we have assurance that BCHA is managing anti-social behaviour (ASB) appropriately, working in cooperation with partners. However, we lack assurance that the board has oversight of its approach to handling incidents of ASB. This gap in reporting is being addressed through a transition to a new IT system for ASB case management, with plans for reporting to board to commence later in 2025.

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we gained assurance that BCHA actively considers the diverse needs of tenants in the delivery of services and has a good understanding of its tenants with a strategy in place to further increase the level of tenant information held. We also saw evidence throughout the inspection that BCHA treats tenants with fairness and respect, and that it listens to tenant feedback from an individual and building perspective. However, despite a wide range of meaningful opportunities to engage being offered by the landlord, we saw little evidence that effective scrutiny by tenants was taking place at a more strategic level.

Some improvement is needed in BCHA’s approach to complaints handling so that it can meet targets on timeliness of responses. We saw evidence that there has been a focus on strengthening this area, including robust reporting and oversight, and that this has started to have a positive impact. BCHA has started to collate, analyse and report on complaints themes so that learning can drive improvements in the service; BCHA needs to continue this alongside the complaints handling improvements, and we will engage further with BCHA on this.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we have assurance that BCHA has a fair and transparent approach to allocations and lettings, considering the needs of tenants and prospective tenants. We have seen evidence that BCHA supports tenants to transition from supported housing to general needs accommodation as appropriate.

Governance – G1 – September 2025 

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

Through the inspection we saw evidence of the board setting and overseeing a clear strategy and providing scrutiny and challenge to the executive on performance against strategic targets. BCHA has reported good performance against the delivery of its strategic objectives, and we saw evidence of effective monitoring which enables the board to gain assurance that it remains on track with its key strategic objectives.

BCHA has established and maintained clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities through its governance arrangements. There is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills, which feeds into succession planning. The board is suitably skilled and receives reporting that is timely and comprehensive, enabling effective decision making. There is evidence that the relationship between BCHA’s committees and board is also well developed and effective.

BCHA provided appropriate assurance that it has an effective risk management and assurance and control framework, which has helped identify and manage risks. We gained assurance that key risks are being managed effectively, including in relation to stock investment, development and sales, supported housing contracts, and landlord health and safety. BCHA’s board needs to ensure that it continues to seek appropriate and timely assurance aligned to the level and complexity of risks.  

We saw evidence that financial performance reporting to board is comprehensive and appropriate, facilitating close board oversight of BCHA’s financial position. Further strengthening of stress testing and mitigation strategy work will support the board in its strategic decision making and risk management.

BCHA demonstrated continuous governance improvement, evidenced through annual effectiveness reviews and periodic external reviews, and we gained assurance that recommendations are actioned and monitored.

Viability – V2 – September 2025 

Based on evidence gained through the inspection, we have assurance that BCHA’s financial plans are consistent with and support its financial strategy. BCHA has an adequately funded business plan and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants under a reasonable range of adverse scenarios.

However, BCHA has the ongoing challenge of delivering its fairly low margin supported housing activity in an uncertain economic environment and needs to manage the risks associated with the delivery of its development of new homes. BCHA relies on surpluses from sales to provide capacity to deliver its strategy and will need to put in place additional funding. Its capacity to raise new secured debt is constrained and will continue to require careful management.

BCHA is also carrying out further work and modelling to assess the additional provision it needs to make in its financial plan to deliver a full programme of energy efficiency improvements into the longer term.   

In the context of wider economic uncertainties, these factors limit BCHA’s capacity to respond to adverse events. The severity and timing of material risks faced by BCHA mean that we will continue to actively monitor its financial performance and its capacity to manage adverse scenarios on an ongoing basis.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

According to the 2025 statistical data return BCHA owns around 1,300 homes across the Southwest.

BCHA has one active subsidiary, Salisbury Trust for the Homeless, a registered charity that provides accommodation and support for homeless people in Salisbury.

At 31 March 2025 BCHA employed 354 full-time equivalent staff. BCHA’s turnover for the year was £29.3m.

BCHA plans to acquire 300 new 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 new 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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard