Decision

Cheshire Peaks & Plains Housing Trust Limited (L4472) - Regulatory Judgement: 28 January 2026

Updated 28 January 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C1 Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.	First grading	January 2026
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	January 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	January 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Cheshire Peaks & Plains Housing Trust Limited (Cheshire Peaks & Plains) following an inspection completed in January 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C1, a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and viability grades for Cheshire Peaks & Plains were last updated in February 2025 following a stability check to confirm a G1 grade for governance and a V2 grade 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, we have concluded that overall Cheshire Peaks & Plains is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for Cheshire Peaks & Plains. 

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

Our judgement is that Cheshire Peaks & Plains meets our financial viability requirements but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance. This includes the need to invest in its existing homes together with the risks associated with its development programme. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for Cheshire Peaks & Plains.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Cheshire Peaks & Plains 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 Challenge Group, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Cheshire Peaks & Plains including its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Cheshire Peaks & Plains.

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 Cheshire Peaks & Plains in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C1 – January 2026

In relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, Cheshire Peaks & Plains 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. We saw evidence that processes are in place to manage damp and mould effectively, and that arrangements are in place to deliver the requirements of Awaab’s Law.

We saw evidence that Cheshire Peaks & Plains keeps an accurate and up to date record of the condition of its homes through physical surveys and has a process for keeping this information up to date. Cheshire Peaks & Plains uses its understanding of the quality and safety of its tenants’ homes to make decisions on the planning of future investments to maintain and improve its homes.

Cheshire Peaks & Plains provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service. We saw evidence that Cheshire Peaks & Plains takes action to improve the service and outcomes for tenants, including through changing its processes to address the rate of no access to properties for repairs.

We gained assurance that Cheshire Peaks & Plains is delivering the required outcomes in relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard. There is evidence that it works with local partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides social housing.

We saw evidence that, in relation to the Tenancy Standard, Cheshire Peaks & Plains works in partnership to ensure a consistent approach to lettings. Cheshire Peaks & Plains reviews its lettings and allocations policy regularly to ensure all properties are let in a fair and transparent way. The board monitors this through a range of performance indicators. We also saw evidence that Cheshire Peaks & Plains supports tenants to sustain tenancies. Cheshire Peaks & Plains has demonstrated it allocates and manages homes compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock.

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we gained assurance that Cheshire Peaks & Plains is delivering the required outcomes. Cheshire Peaks & Plains has a good understanding of its tenants, including data on vulnerability. However, the board needs to ensure it has assurance that this data is used effectively to understand how services could be adapted to support individual tenants, and that action is taken as a result.

There is evidence that feedback from tenants and scrutiny reviews have influenced decision making within Cheshire Peaks & Plains. Performance information on complaints is regularly reviewed, and we have seen evidence of where it has used this to improve services.

Governance – G1 – January 2026

Based on evidence gained through the inspection, we have assurance that Cheshire Peaks & Plains’ governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. Cheshire Peaks & Plains’ board demonstrated that it provides challenge on performance against its targets and consideration of risk appetite in strategic decision making.

Cheshire Peaks & Plains regularly reviews its arrangements and gains assurance through a programme of internal audits, reviews and periodic external governance reviews. There is evidence that this activity is used to improve services to its residents. The most recent external governance review was carried out in 2024.

Board members’ skills, experience and knowledge are broad and aligned with Cheshire Peaks & Plains’ operations, and skills appraisals are carried out to manage its succession planning. We saw evidence of this through board observations, meetings with non-executive directors and the executive team, as well as reviewing relevant documents including meeting minutes.

Cheshire Peaks & Plains demonstrated that there is an appropriate risk management and control framework that aligns to its strategic risks, including deep dives into those risks. We saw evidence of robust stress testing against key risks and combinations of risks, with appropriate challenge and scrutiny by its board, and comprehensive mitigations in place.

Cheshire Peaks & Plains has an embedded approach to achieving value for money and effectively demonstrated it has arrangements in place that facilitate robust challenge to make the most of its available resources. 

Viability – V2 – January 2026

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection we have concluded that there is appropriate assurance that Cheshire Peaks & Plains’ financial plans are consistent with and support its financial strategy. Cheshire Peaks & Plains has provided evidence that it has an adequately funded business plan and sufficient security in place to support its financial plans.

Cheshire Peaks & Plains faces material exposures that it needs to manage. Cheshire Peaks & Plains is investing in its existing homes to improve their quality and energy efficiency alongside developing new homes.

Cheshire Peaks & Plains anticipates generating surpluses from the sale of new homes. It is not reliant on these sales, however they represent an uncertain cashflow for the organisation and a financial risk it needs to manage. With weakening financial performance and increased spending on existing homes, Cheshire Peaks & Plains’ capacity to manage adverse events is reduced.

The severity and timing of material risks faced by Cheshire Peaks & Plains means that we will continue to closely monitor its financial performance and its capacity to manage adverse scenarios on an ongoing basis. We will continue to engage with Cheshire Peaks & Plains as it delivers its financial plans and ensures it has a financially sustainable strategy going forward.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Cheshire Peaks & Plains owns and manages around 5,100 homes and manages around 50 homes for other landlords.

Cheshire Peaks & Plains is the only RSH registered entity in its group and is a non-profit registered provider of social housing. 

At 31 March 2025, Cheshire Peaks & Plains employed 158 fulltime equivalent staff, and its turnover was £36.8m. Cheshire Peaks & Plains plans to develop around 350 homes between 2026 and 2030.

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