Decision

Inclusion Housing Community Interest Company (4662) - Regulatory Judgement: 10 June 2026

Updated 10 June 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	June 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	June 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing this regulatory judgement for Inclusion Housing Community Interest Company (Inclusion) to upgrade its governance grade to G2 and to upgrade its viability grade to V2 following responsive engagement relating to delivering the outcomes of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Inclusion were last updated in a regulatory judgement in February 2019 to confirm a governance grade of G3 and a financial viability grade of V3.

Summary of the decision

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

Our judgement is that Inclusion meets our financial viability requirements as it has the financial capacity to manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios and has access to sufficient liquidity. However, it needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for Inclusion.

How we reached our judgement

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during our responsive engagement that focussed on the issues in our regulatory judgement published in February 2019. This included reviewing documents provided by Inclusion and discussions with it.

We have not yet assessed Inclusion against the consumer standards.

Summary of findings  

Governance – G2 – June 2026

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

In February 2019 we published a regulatory judgment for Inclusion with a governance grade of G3, following an in depth assessment and responsive engagement. The regulatory judgement concluded that we lacked assurance that Inclusion’s risk management and mitigating actions were commensurate with its risk profile.

We also lacked assurance that Inclusion had sufficient mitigations available within its control should risks crystallise, to ensure its ongoing financial viability, and that social housing and tenants’ homes would be protected over economic and policy cycles.

We have assessed the improvement work that Inclusion has carried out since the last regulatory judgement and we are satisfied that governance arrangements have been sufficiently improved to demonstrate an effective risk management, business planning and control framework. Inclusion’s board has demonstrated that it has a better understanding of material risks in its operating model, with improved reporting and higher levels of scrutiny and challenge providing assurance on the board’s overall effectiveness. Steps have been taken by the board to commission independent advice and reviews to provide assurance on assumptions that underpin business planning including a review of the condition of its homes. Similarly, the board has taken sufficient corrective action in response to feedback to demonstrate oversight to ensure robust and detailed stress testing is carried out.

Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements but needs to improve some aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance. We expect Inclusion to deliver on its action plan to support ongoing improvements such as reviewing the quality of its board reporting and board skills to ensure effective governance arrangements. Inclusion will need to carry out further work on business planning assumptions based on recommendations from the reviews it has carried out and continue to improve its mitigation planning. We will also continue to monitor Inclusion’s financial performance as it delivers its financial plans as it continues to improve the management and mitigation of risks arising from its long lease arrangements.

Viability – V2 – June 2026

Inclusion has demonstrated changes in its management and mitigation of material risks arising from long term, low margin, inflation linked leases with its head landlords to provide sufficient assurance that it meets our viability requirements. Inclusion has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.

Inclusion’s financial plans are based on reasonable assumptions and support its financial strategy. It has an adequately funded business plan and sufficient liquidity in place. It is reliant on inherently low margin activity, and its business plan includes efficiency savings through delivery of its growth plans, which if not achieved could impact on its financial stability.

Overall leases are now shorter in length which reduces the overall lease liability compared to turnover. Reliance on third parties to manage void risk has been reduced sufficiently due to improvements in void rates and arrangements that provide Inclusion with insurance against losses. Diversification in the portfolio has ensured Inclusion is better able to manage exposure to single care providers.

Inclusion’s stress testing has demonstrated that its cash position has improved to enable it to absorb plausible downside risks, reducing its reliance on the goodwill of third parties to mitigate risks.

Inclusion continues to have exposure to potential future changes in welfare policy.  However, the policy environment around delivery of Specialised Supported Housing has been stable for a number of years and in the context of wider improvements to risk management and mitigation, we have assurance that Inclusion has taken reasonable steps towards contingency planning should this risk crystallise. This includes implementing terms in its contractual arrangements that aim to share the risk with head landlords and/ or allow for renegotiation of terms in the event of changes to welfare policy.

Inclusion’s business plan aims to dilute the risks of its long lease portfolio through ongoing reduction of lease length, continued delivery of void cover arrangements and increasing coverage to align with length of leases, diversifying reliance on leases as single source of finance and managing underperforming schemes. Ongoing regulatory engagement will monitor Inclusion’s delivery of its business plan.  The nature of the material risks faced by Inclusion means that we will continue to closely monitor its financial performance and its capacity to manage adverse scenarios on an ongoing basis.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Inclusion is a not-for-profit registered provider. It predominantly provides specialised supported housing and works with care providers to provide accommodation and support for vulnerable adults with complex learning and physical disabilities. The 2026 Statistical Data Return reported it has 4,575 social homes and manages 243 homes for others across England (with a small number of homes in Scotland and Wales).

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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard