Decision

The Cambridge Housing Society Limited (L0992) - Regulatory Judgement: 24 June 2026

Updated 24 June 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	June 2026
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	June 2026
Viability	V1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.	Assessed and unchanged	June 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for The Cambridge Housing Society Limited (Cambridge Housing Society) following an inspection completed in June 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C2, a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V1.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Cambridge Housing Society were last updated in November 2025 following a stability check to confirm grades of G1 and V1. 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 Cambridge Housing Society, we have concluded that there are some weaknesses in Cambridge Housing Society delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Cambridge Housing Society.

Our judgement is that Cambridge Housing Society meets our governance requirements. It 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 Cambridge Housing Society.

Our judgement is that Cambridge Housing Society meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios. Cambridge Housing Society has a strong financial profile, and its stress testing demonstrates that financial capacity is built into its business plan. It has provided appropriate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and adequate funding in place. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V1 grade for Cambridge Housing Society.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Cambridge Housing Society 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 and tenant scrutiny panel, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Cambridge Housing Society including its non-executive directors, interviewed staff, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Cambridge Housing Society.

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

Summary of findings

Consumer – C2 – June 2026

During the inspection, Cambridge Housing Society 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. There is evidence that it keeps an accurate record 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. Cambridge Housing Society demonstrated 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.

We have assurance that Cambridge Housing Society is addressing weaknesses in its repairs service following the appointment of a new contractor in April 2025. While significant progress has been made in addressing overdue responsive repairs, further improvement is required to the timeliness of the service, in line with agreed service standards. We have assurance that Cambridge Housing Society has responded effectively to identified issues and that work is underway to improve performance. Through our ongoing engagement we will continue to seek assurance from Cambridge Housing Society that improved and consistent outcomes for tenants can be evidenced.

Cambridge Housing Society has demonstrated that it is working with appropriate partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides homes. It has plans in place to review the service with input from tenants in the context of relatively low tenant satisfaction with how it deals with anti-social behaviour.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, Cambridge Housing Society provided evidence that it is letting homes fairly. Provisions are in place to support tenancy sustainment including helping tenants to access financial support, request aids and adaptations, and assisting with applications to move homes.

Cambridge Housing Society provided evidence that it treats tenants with fairness and respect. It uses information and feedback to understand and respond to residents’ needs but has identified that it needs to increase its information collection to allow further tailoring of its services. It has well progressed plans underway to address this through a tenant census that is due to close by the end of May 2026, and clear plans for how it will use the information.

Cambridge Housing Society has a well-established and effective tenant engagement framework with clear links to the wider governance structure and evidence of direct impact on board decision making and service improvements. We observed how members of the tenant-led scrutiny panel challenge and scrutinise the delivery of services, with clear processes in place to enable the autonomy of the group in decision making. There is a wide range of meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise services, and engaged tenants are actively involved in ensuring continuous improvement in wider tenant engagement.

Cambridge Housing Society makes effective use of its performance information and sources of assurance to shape services and identify and address potential issues and areas for improvement, as demonstrated by action taken to address its repairs performance and plans to improve anti-social behaviour satisfaction.

Cambridge Housing Society has a track record of delivering an effective complaints service, with a focus on quality of responses, resolution of cases and evidence of using learning from complaints to improve services.

Governance – G1 – June 2026

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

Cambridge Housing Society’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. 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. While planned improvements to reporting will further facilitate scrutiny, we saw evidence of effective monitoring and action being taken to address any identified areas of underperformance.

Cambridge Housing Society has established and maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities through its governance arrangements. There is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills, which feeds into succession planning. There is a clear focus on continuous improvement through annual effectiveness reviews, including external periodic reviews, and we gained assurance that resulting recommendations are actioned and monitored.

Cambridge Housing Society 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 investment in homes, development, supported housing contracts and landlord health and safety. Internal audits are appropriately aligned to key risks and have provided reasonable to substantial assurance across core areas.

We saw evidence that financial performance reporting to board is comprehensive and appropriate, facilitating close board oversight of Cambridge Housing Society’s financial position. Stress testing is comprehensive and is used to inform strategic and financial decisions.

Viability – V1 – June 2026

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection we have concluded that there is appropriate assurance that Cambridge Housing Society’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. It has appropriately evidenced that it has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place to support its financial plans, and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants under a wide range of adverse scenarios. Cambridge Housing Society’s board has effective oversight of covenant compliance and its financial position.

Cambridge Housing Society has a strong financial profile, with financial capacity built into its business plan, and there are strong levels of forecast headroom with no reliance on sales. It forecasts adequate interest cover while continuing to deliver its development programme and investing in its existing homes to meet both decarbonisation aims and improve the quality of those homes.

Stress testing demonstrates that Cambridge Housing Society’s financial capacity, including sufficient liquidity, is built into its business plan for development and investment in homes and that there is adequate funding in place.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Cambridge Housing Society owns and manages around 3,000 homes in Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties. Its homes are spread across seven local authority areas, with most located in Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

Most homes are social and affordable rented homes, with a proportion of low-cost home ownership, housing for older people and supported housing homes.

Cambridge Housing Society also provides domiciliary care to general needs tenants through contracts with local authorities and a range of community investment activities.

At 31 March 2025, Cambridge Housing Society employed 132 full time equivalent staff. Its turnover for the year ending 31 March 2025 was £29.7m.

Cambridge Housing Society plans for the development of 140 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.

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords