Decision

Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (5079) - Regulatory Judgement: 17 December 2025

Updated 17 December 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.	Based on previous assessment	October 2024
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	December 2025
Rent	Our judgement is that the landlord has addressed the issues in the regulatory notice dated October 2023.	New judgement	December 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	December 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) following a stability check and responsive engagement completed in December 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2. JRHT has a consumer grade of C2 from a planned inspection completed in October 2024.

This regulatory judgement also confirms the removal of our regulatory notice dated October 2023 in relation to the Rent Standard. In October 2023 we published a regulatory notice that concluded that JRHT had failed to deliver the outcomes of the Rent Standard 2020 and we did not have assurance that it was compliant with the legal requirements of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.

Summary of the decision

Based on the relevant information and evidence we reviewed in carrying out the stability check, our judgement is that JRHT 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 JRHT.

From the stability check, there is no evidence to indicate a change in governance grade is required. JRHT’s governance grade remains G1.

Based on the evidence gained through responsive engagement and our October 2024 inspection, JRHT has provided appropriate assurance that it has addressed the issues relating to the Rent Standard set out in the regulatory notice dated October 2023. We have concluded that we have sufficient assurance to remove the regulatory notice

This regulatory judgement is based on a stability check which does not include a reassessment of JRHT’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, JRHT’s most recent consumer, governance and viability grades were C2, G1 and V2, which were issued in October 2024 following an inspection. During this inspection, we also 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, spoke with tenants, held meetings with JRHT and its management and non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by JRHT.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out a stability check of JRHT as part of our annual stability check programme.

Our judgement about how well JRHT is delivering the viability outcomes of our Governance and Financial Viability Standard is based on a review of a range of documents provided by JRHT, as well as analysis of information supplied by JRHT in its regulatory returns.

In confirming JRHT’s governance grade as part of the stability check, our work was limited to verifying that the information contained in JRHT’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

Consumer – C2 – October 2024

Below are the findings of our most recent regulatory judgement about JRHT’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards, which assessed JRHT’s consumer grade as C2. The regulatory judgement was issued in October 2024 following a programmed inspection.

During the inspection, JRHT 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. There is evidence that JRHT keeps an accurate record of the condition of its homes at an individual property level through physical surveys of all homes and has a process for keeping this information up to date. JRHT has increased its capacity to deliver its programme of stock condition surveys and has demonstrated that it uses its understanding of the quality and safety of its tenants’ homes to make decisions on future investment to maintain and improve homes.

JRHT has demonstrated that it provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs service to tenants and takes action to improve the service and outcomes for tenants when issues occur. There is evidence that the views of tenants have influenced improvements made to the accessibility of JRHT’s repairs service and that there are opportunities for tenants to carry out scrutiny of the repairs process.

JRHT demonstrated that it is working in partnership with appropriate partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides homes. However, JRHT recognises that continued improvements are required in the reporting mechanisms of anti-social behaviour cases for it to better understand tenants’ views of how it is managing anti-social behaviour in its neighbourhoods. We saw evidence that JRHT is addressing this matter.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, JRHT provided evidence that it seeks to offer tenures that are appropriate for the homes it lets, considering the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community and the efficient use of social housing. There are a range of measures in place to support tenancy sustainment including successfully helping tenants to access financial support. JRHT provided evidence that it is making improvements to its policy framework to continue meeting the outcomes of the Tenancy Standard.

There are some weaknesses in JRHT’s approach in delivering the outcomes of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard which require improvement. We gained assurance that JRHT treats its tenants with fairness and respect. However, JRHT is working to improve the information it holds about the diverse needs of its tenants to better adapt and tailor its services to their individual needs to ensure its housing and landlord services deliver equitable outcomes for tenants.

At a local level we saw evidence of meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise JRHT’s strategies, policies and services, and JRHT has commissioned external support to improve tenant involvement and scrutiny functions at a strategic level. This work is ongoing, and we will continue to engage with JRHT as it strengthens its approach to tenant engagement.

JRHT provides a range of relevant and accessible information to tenants, including about its performance. JRHT’s approach to complaints handling is clear and in line with the requirements of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, but a further area for improvement for JRHT is how it learns from complaints and uses this information to improve services.

We continue to actively engage with JRHT to monitor its progress in improving its delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards.

Governance – G1 – December 2025

From the stability check, there is no evidence to indicate that a change in governance grade is required.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, we issued a regulatory judgement in October 2024 following a programmed inspection of JRHT. Below are the findings in that judgement about JRHT’s delivery of our governance requirements.

Based on evidence gained through inspection there is assurance that JRHT’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risk and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. JRHT’s board demonstrated that it provides challenge on performance against the organisation’s strategic targets and consideration of risk appetite in strategic decision making.

During the inspection, we saw evidence that JRHT’s board proactively reviews its approach to delivering against its purpose and is prioritising investment in existing homes and services to tenants. JRHT has demonstrated that it continues to actively manage its capacity while it also delivers a development programme of new homes.

JRHT was able to provide evidence that it has established and maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. The relationship between its board and committees is working in line with its delegations to strengthen assurance in key areas of risk and compliance. JRHT is the subsidiary of an unregistered parent, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), and JRHT was able to provide evidence that robust arrangements are in place to ensure it can meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Continuing governance improvement is evidenced through annual effectiveness reviews and in-depth periodic external governance reviews. The most recent external review took place in February 2024, and we saw evidence of the recommendations being implemented as a result.

Board member skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of the organisation and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills to support succession planning. JRHT has increased leadership capacity to ensure the appropriate independence and to focus on delivery of its strategic objectives with a performance and reporting framework that supports this. We saw evidence of this in practice through our inspection work.

JRHT has demonstrated that there is an appropriate risk management and control framework that aligns to its strategic risks. There is evidence that this flows from JRHT’s board through the organisation with risks being managed effectively in practice. JRHT’s board actively seeks and gains an appropriate level of assurance across a range of areas.

Board ownership of stress testing and mitigation strategies is evidenced and is used to inform decisions, supplementing the wider control framework. Reporting to board provides sufficient detail for the board to ensure effective oversight.

Rent – December 2025

As outlined in the October 2023 regulatory notice, we concluded that JRHT had found it had wrongly classified some of its homes as specialised supported housing and the tenants of these homes had been overcharged. As part of its detailed follow-on investigations, JRHT discovered it had previously set rents incorrectly for up to 400 ‘fair rent’ tenancies.

Through our responsive engagement with JRHT and our October 2024 inspection, evidence has been provided to demonstrate that JRHT has actioned recommendations from the reviews completed and implemented a number of improvements. As well as correcting errors and ensuring any overcharges of rent have been refunded, JRHT commissioned an independent external review of its arrangements for rent setting including its policy and whether controls in place were adequate and operating effectively. JRHT provided appropriate assurance to demonstrate that the issues covered by the regulatory notice have been satisfactorily addressed, evidencing that it is meeting the outcomes required under the Rent Standard and therefore this matter is no longer being considered through our ongoing regulation.

Viability – V2 – December 2025

Based on evidence gained from the stability check, we have assurance that JRHT meets the viability requirements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.

We have concluded that JRHT has financial plans that are consistent with and support the delivery of its strategic objectives. JRHT’s business plan is appropriately funded, and sufficient security is in place to support its financial and business plan. However, the business plan demonstrates a weakening in financial resilience primarily due to a decline in shared ownership sales programme combined with an increase in the development of new general needs homes. This means JRHT has the capacity to respond to a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but will need to manage these material risks.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

According to the 2025 statistical data return JRHT owns 2,424 homes in North East England and Yorkshire and Humberside.

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