Decision

Bromsgrove District Housing Trust Limited (LH4415) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 July 2025

Updated 30 July 2025

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer		Not assessed yet
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Upgrade	July 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.	Based on previous assessment	December 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Bromsgrove District Housing Trust Limited (bdht) to upgrade its governance grade from G2 to G1 following responsive engagement which completed in July 2025.

This regulatory judgement is the result of our responsive engagement following an In Depth Assessment (IDA) in August 2023 which concluded that bdht needed to improve aspects of its governance arrangements to ensure continued compliance. IDAs were one of our previous assessment processes now replaced by our new inspections programme from 1 April 2024.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for bdht were last updated in December 2024 following a stability check to confirm grades of G2 and V2.

We have not yet assessed this landlord against the consumer standards.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained through responsive engagement our judgement is that bdht meets our governance requirements. bdht has provided evidence to demonstrate that it has strengthened its governance arrangements since it was downgraded in August 2023. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for bdht.

We last reviewed bdht’s financial viability grade in December 2024 through a stability check which concluded that there was no change to the existing V2 grade.

How we reached our judgement

Following the governance downgrade, we carried out responsive engagement which focused on bdht’s risk management and internal control framework, and the board’s oversight of business and financial planning.

Our engagement included reviewing documents provided to us by bdht, along with follow-up meetings and discussions with bdht’s executive team and an observation of the board.

This regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the responsive engagement process together with information provided to us by bdht as part of its regulatory reporting.

Summary of findings 

Governance – G1 – July 2025

Based on the evidence gained through our responsive engagement, we have concluded that we have appropriate assurance that bdht’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives.

bdht has strengthened its governance arrangements, specifically its risk management and internal control framework as well as aspects of its financial governance arrangements. Changes to board membership, and ongoing development of bdht’s board have added organisational capacity and improved the oversight and management of strategic risks.

bdht has improved its stress testing and mitigation strategies to meet our governance requirements. This includes considering the impact of sufficiently severe stress testing against its golden rules, lenders’ covenants and headroom. We saw evidence that this is reported to bdht’s board with identified mitigation strategies which support the board in its decision making and risk management. These improvements have strengthened the board’s oversight and ability to assess and respond to any presenting challenges and changes in its financial position.

bdht has also reviewed the effectiveness of its corporate and governance structures, simplifying these to enable greater board efficiency and oversight.

Overall, we consider that bdht has provided appropriate assurance that it has sufficiently addressed the governance weaknesses we previously identified. Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.

Viability – V2 – December 2024

Based on evidence gained from the 2024 stability check, we have assurance that bdht’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. bdht has the capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

bdht owns and manages around 4,300 homes, the majority of which are in Bromsgrove.

bdht’s turnover for the year ended 31 March 2024 was £26.25m. bdht plans to deliver 364 homes between 2025 and 2028. Most of these homes will be for social rent and shared ownership.

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