Decision

Christian Action (Enfield) Housing Association Limited - Regulatory Judgement: 25 January 2026

Updated 25 February 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer		Not assessed yet
Governance	G2 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements but needs to improve some aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance.	Upgrade	February 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.	Upgrade	February 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing this regulatory judgement for Christian Action (Enfield) Housing Association Limited (CAHA) to upgrade its governance grade to G2 and to upgrade its viability grade to V2 following responsive engagement that focused on the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for CAHA were last updated in April 2023 following an investigation, to confirm grades of G3 and V3.

Summary of the decision

Our judgement is that CAHA meets our governance requirements but needs to improve some aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance, specifically in relation to performance management and contract management. Based on this assessment we have concluded a G2 grade for CAHA.

Our judgement is that CAHA meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. CAHA has limited financial headroom, and a number of financial risks need to be managed, including increased investment in its existing homes. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for CAHA.

How we reached our judgement

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during our responsive engagement with CAHA that focused on the issues highlighted in our judgements of December 2022 and April 2023. This responsive engagement included working closely with CAHA to monitor delivery of its improvement plan, reviewing documents provided by CAHA, observing a board meeting, and discussions with the landlord.

We carried out a stability check review as part of our annual stability check programme. We also carried out further responsive engagement that focused on CAHA’s viability grading.

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

Summary of findings  

Governance – G2 – February 2026

This regulatory judgement upgrades our previous assessment of CAHA’s governance grade from G3 to G2.

In December 2022 we downgraded CAHA’s governance grade from G1 to G3. This was the result of an investigation which found that CAHA did not have a robust and prudent business planning, risk and control framework, and that its board had not been managing its affairs with an appropriate degree of skill, diligence, prudence and foresight.

We have assessed the governance improvement work that CAHA has carried out since 2022 to address the weaknesses set out in the December 2022 regulatory judgement. We are satisfied that CAHA’s governance arrangements ensure it now has an effective risk management and internal controls assurance framework. CAHA has carried out a programme of governance improvements, including skills-based board recruitment and simplifying the committee structure. There are clearly defined responsibilities for the identification, evaluation and control of significant risks and we have observed the risk management framework operating effectively with the oversight of the Audit and Risk Committee. Performance against loan covenants and golden rules is now frequently monitored, including through monthly management accounts reported to the board.

CAHA is developing an action plan to capture the additional improvements to governance arrangements that are required to support continued compliance, and this will include enhancements to its KPI performance management framework and its approach to contractor management to ensure the effective monitoring of the delivery of its plans. We will continue to engage with CAHA as it implements its action plan.

Viability – V2 – February 2026

This regulatory judgement upgrades CAHA’s viability grade from V3 to V2.

In April 2023 we downgraded CAHA’s financial viability to V3 as we did not have assurance that CAHA had a robust financial plan that it could deliver, or that it was effectively managing its financial position and performance. We did not have confidence that CAHA’s mitigation strategies would be effective in ensuring the long-term viability of the organisation, or protecting social housing assets should further risks crystallise.

Our judgement is that CAHA now meets our financial viability requirements and needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance. CAHA’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. It has sufficient liquidity and security in place to support its financial plans and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants.

However, CAHA needs to manage material risks in order to deliver its objectives, including investing in its existing homes to improve the quality and energy efficiency. CAHA’s business plan does not fully reflect the expenditure needed to achieve its target of all homes meeting EPC C by 2030. Delivering this investment, in the context of CAHA’s limited financial headroom and economic pressures, reduces the capacity within CAHA’s business plan and its ability to respond to further adverse events.

We will continue to engage with CAHA to monitor its financial performance as it delivers its financial plans and ensures it has a financially sustainable strategy going forward.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

CAHA owns 1380 social housing homes and operates across the North London boroughs of Enfield, Barnet, Haringey and Waltham Forest.

CAHA has one active unregistered subsidiary, Neighbourhood Estates Solutions Limited, which provides estate services such as cleaning and grounds maintenance.

CAHA reported a turnover of £16.8m for the year ended 31 March 2025 and employs the full-time equivalent of 59 staff.

CAHA has no current development programme.

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