Decision

Community Gateway Association Limited (L4457) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 July 2025

Updated 30 July 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	July 2025
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	July 2025
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	July 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Community Gateway Association Limited (Community Gateway) following an inspection completed in July 2025.

The regulatory inspection confirms a consumer grading of C2, a governance grading of G1 and a financial viability grading of V1.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability gradings for Community Gateway were last updated in January 2025, following a stability check which confirmed 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 evidence and assurance gained during the inspection, it is our judgement that there are some weaknesses in Community Gateway’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard. Based on this assessment we have concluded a C2 grade for Community Gateway.

Our judgement is that Community Gateway meets our governance requirements. Community Gateway has provided evidence to demonstrate it has a clearly articulated strategy, with detailed reporting that allows scrutiny of performance. Board members have the capacity and skills, including sector and financial knowledge, to deliver Community Gateway’s charitable and strategic objectives. There is evidence of appropriate financial governance with comprehensive and timely reporting to the board. Based on this assessment we have concluded a G1 grade for Community Gateway.

Our judgement is that Community Gateway meets our financial viability requirements. It has access to sufficient liquidity and continues to forecast covenant compliance with reasonable headroom. Based on this assessment we have concluded a V1 grade for Community Gateway.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Community Gateway 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 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 a resident forum meeting, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Community Gateway including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Community Gateway.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information received from Community Gateway through its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – July 2025 

Community Gateway provided evidence-based assurance regarding the Safety and Quality Standard that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas. Community Gateway provided evidence that it is managing its health and safety compliance risks; however, improvements are needed in the systems and data that it relies on for this information. We saw evidence that the board has oversight of fire safety and the fire risk assessment programme and there is appropriate assurance that risks in this area are being managed.

There is evidence that Community Gateway has an accurate understanding of the condition of its homes at an individual property level, based on a physical assessment of all homes and that it has a well-developed approach to keeping this information up to date. Community Gateway’s updated approach to surveying homes includes an assessment of potential hazards in the home; however, its current survey programme is still in the process of being delivered. Community Gateway has brought forward plans to deliver this. Community Gateway’s board is provided with appropriate assurance on compliance with the Decent Homes Standard (DHS), although we identified areas for improvement in how this is reported.

Community Gateway continues to drive improvement so that it has an effective, efficient and timely repairs service. We saw evidence that changes Community Gateway has already made, arising from tenant scrutiny activity, are leading to improved outcomes for tenants. More work is needed for the repairs service to meet Community Gateway’s own targets on timeliness, and for the implementation of planned improvements to communication with tenants on their repairs.

Community Gateway has a plan in place to make improvements to its systems and data; however, the pace of delivery is not meeting its original expectations. The board’s oversight of key areas of the safety and quality of Community Gateway’s homes also needs strengthening, including DHS, damp, mould and condensation, and annual smoke and carbon monoxide checks.

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we have evidence that Community Gateway uses its ‘Gateway’ structure to enable tenants to fully participate. It provides a range of opportunities for tenant engagement. We saw evidence of the ways that tenants can influence and scrutinise strategies, policies and services. The board receives progress updates against Community Gateway’s Community Empowerment Strategy, which was developed in partnership with tenants. There is evidence of the meaningful opportunities for tenants leading to service improvements including on website accessibility, the introduction of courses supporting tenants in financial hardship and boosting visits to the customer hub.

Community Gateway has improved its handling of complaints and use of complaints data so that it has more accurate, timely and insightful information. Community Gateway’s resident committee (Gateway Central) receives quarterly Customer Insight reports providing them with oversight of complaints, with further oversight at the board level. The board is focused on reducing the number of recurring complaints and improving satisfaction.

We saw that Community Gateway understands its tenants and the communities it operates in but needs to continue to increase its awareness of tenants’ diverse needs, including using data to inform its services.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we found evidence that Community Gateway works in partnership with other agencies to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides social housing.

Community Gateway has demonstrated that, in relation to the Tenancy Standard, it has an approach to lettings and allocations that is transparent and that measures are in place to monitor adherence to its policies.

Governance – G1 – July 2025

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection, we gained assurance that Community Gateway’s governance arrangements, including its risk and control framework, enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation. There is detailed reporting that allows the board to scrutinise operational performance and progress in meeting its corporate objectives.

Community Gateway has clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. It has periodic governance effectiveness reviews, most recently in 2023. There is an appropriate succession plan for the board that is regularly reviewed. Community Gateway’s rules require the Chair to be a Community Gateway tenant. The board recognises the importance of developing both tenant board members and Gateway Central members as part of its succession planning.

Community Gateway’s risk management and control framework is aligned to its strategic risks. We saw evidence through our board observation, meeting with non-executive directors and the executive team that there is an understanding of the risks facing the organisation and the controls in place to mitigate them. Community Gateway needs to ensure that its corporate risk register is comprehensive in setting out the key controls and mapping sources of assurance against these.

Community Gateway has an appropriate approach to its stress testing that enables the board to understand and manage risks to its viability. Community Gateway stress tests a range of scenarios reflecting its risk profile and informed by its assets and liabilities register. Regular reporting allows the board to monitor Community Gateway’s financial performance according to its risk appetite. The overall approach to stress testing enables the board to understand and manage risks to Community Gateway’s viability.

Viability – V1 – July 2025

Based on evidence gained from the inspection, we have assurance that Community Gateway’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. Community Gateway has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place, is effectively managing its treasury arrangements to deliver its strategy and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants under a wide range of adverse scenarios.

We saw evidence that Community Gateway’s board has effective oversight of loan covenant compliance, forecast financial performance is strong and it is not sensitive to the loss of sales surpluses from its business plan. The board must continue to develop its understanding of costs and liabilities in relation to net zero carbon.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Community Gateway is an exempt charity under the Co-Operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. It owns and manages around 7,000 homes, predominantly in the Preston area.

Community Gateway is the asset holding group parent and the only registered provider of social housing in the group. It has three wholly owned unregistered subsidiaries:

• Patterdale Developments Limited,

• Preston Vocational Centre Limited, and

• Community Gateway Homes Limited.

At 31 March 2024, Community Gateway employed 263 full-time equivalent staff. The unaudited turnover for the year ended 31 March 2025 is £46m. Community Gateway aims to deliver 500 new affordable homes between 2024-27.

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