Hightown Housing Association Limited (L2179) - Regulatory Judgement: 26 November 2025
Updated 26 November 2025
Applies to England
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Our Judgement
| Grade/Judgement | Change | Date of assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer | Not assessed yet | ||
| Governance | G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements. |
Assessed and unchanged | November 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. |
Assessed and unchanged | November 2025 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Hightown Housing Association Limited (Hightown) following a stability check completed in November 2025.
This regulatory judgement confirms a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.
Summary of the decision
Based on the relevant information and evidence we reviewed in carrying out the stability check, our judgement is that Hightown meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. However, it needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance. We have therefore concluded the landlord’s grade is unchanged and issue a V2 grade for Hightown.
From the stability check, there is no evidence to indicate a change in governance grade is required. Hightown’s governance grade remains G1.
This regulatory judgement is based on a stability check which does not include an assessment of Hightown’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards.
Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Hightown were last updated in November 2024 following a stability check to issue a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.
How we reached our judgement
We carried out a stability check of Hightown as part of our annual stability check programme.
Our judgement about how well Hightown is delivering the viability outcomes of our Governance and Financial Viability Standard is based on a review of a range of documents provided by Hightown, as well as analysis of information supplied by Hightown in its regulatory returns.
In confirming Hightown’s governance grade as part of the stability check, our work was limited to verifying that the information contained in Hightown’s regulatory returns did not appear inconsistent with its existing published governance grade.
Our stability checks do not assess a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards.
Summary of findings
Governance – G1 – November 2025
From the stability check, there is no evidence to indicate that a change in governance grade is required.
Viability – V2 – November 2025
Based on evidence gained from the stability check, we have assurance that Hightown meets the viability requirements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.
Our judgement is that Hightown meets our financial viability requirements. We have appropriate assurance that Hightown’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. Hightown’s business plan is adequately funded with sufficient security in place to support its financial plans and it is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants.
Hightown does however face material exposures. Hightown needs to manage risks relating to its debt portfolio including, the exposure to interest rate rises given level of variable rate debt held and the need for refinancing existing facilities, combined with an ongoing requirement for new debt to deliver its development programme. These factors, together with exposure to the shared ownership property market, reduce Hightown’s capacity to respond to adverse events.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
According to the 2025 statistical data return, Hightown owns 8,327 homes across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
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.