Decision

North Star Housing Group (LH0084) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 September 2026

Updated 30 September 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C1 Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.	First grading	September 2026
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	September 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.	Regrade	September 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for North Star Housing Group (North Star) following an inspection completed in September 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C1, a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for North Star were last updated in December 2025 following a stability check to confirm a G1 grade for governance and a V1 grade for financial viability. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the assurance gained during the inspection, based on the evidence provided by North Star, we have concluded that North Star is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for North Star.

Our judgement is that North Star meets our governance requirements. North Star has provided evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of its governance arrangements and that it continues to effectively manage the risks of its activities, allowing it to deliver its strategic and charitable objectives. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for North Star.

Our judgement is that North Star meets our financial viability requirements. North Star’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. North Star has an adequately funded financial plan, sufficient security in place to support its plans, and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants.

While North Star has the capacity to withstand a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, it is increasing its investment in existing homes while continuing to develop new homes. This has weakened its financial performance in the short-term. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 regrade for North Star.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of North Star 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 planned 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 meeting of The Tenants’ Voice Panel, spoke with tenants, held meetings with North Star including its non-executive directors and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by North Star.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by North Star in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C1 – September 2026

In relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, North Star provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place for ensuring the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.

North Star demonstrated that it has an accurate record of its current position in relation to meeting its legal requirements to landlord health and safety and ensures that required remedial actions are completed within appropriate timescales.

We saw evidence that North Star keeps an accurate and up-to-date record of the condition of its homes through physical surveys at an individual property level and has a process for keeping this up to date. North Star uses its understanding of the quality and safety of its tenants’ homes to make decisions on planning future investments to maintain and improve its homes.

North Star provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service to its tenants and continues to take action to strengthen the service and improve outcomes for tenants.

We saw evidence that North Star’s approach to repairs is informed by the diverse needs of its tenants, and that it uses tenants’ information to tailor its services appropriately.

North Star is delivering the outcomes of the Neighbourhood and Community Standard. We saw evidence that North Star works in partnership with relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhood where it provides social housing, and that it is learning from tenant feedback and previous outcomes to understand the drivers for anti-social behaviour and to shape how services are delivered.

In relation to the requirements of the Tenancy Standard, North Star provided evidence that its homes are allocated in a fair, transparent and efficient way. We also saw evidence that North Star supports tenants to sustain their tenancies.

We saw evidence that North Star is delivering the outcomes in the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. North Star demonstrated that it actively supports a wide range of meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence services, policies and strategies. North Star is working to understand and reduce barriers to engagement to encourage more tenants to become involved in The Tenants’ Voice Panel, while offering several other routes for tenants to engage and deliver scrutiny. We gained assurance that tenant feedback is used to improve service outcomes.

We saw evidence that North Star treats its tenants with fairness and respect. North Star uses relevant information to understand the diverse needs of its tenants and tailors its services accordingly. North Star provides tenants with timely and accessible information about its performance and landlord services.

North Star provided evidence that it handles complaints fairly, effectively and promptly, with appropriate oversight by board and tenants. We saw evidence that performance information and learning from complaints is used to improve service delivery and outcomes for tenants.

Governance – G1 – September 2026

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection, we have assurance that North Star’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. North Star’s board demonstrated that it monitors strategic delivery, challenges performance against strategic priorities and considers its risk appetite in strategic decision making.

We saw evidence that North Star regularly reviews the delivery of its services and considers how it can achieve value for money to make the best use of its resources and deliver its objectives.

North Star maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. We have assurance that its board and committees work in line with delegations and that the board periodically reviews the effectiveness of its governance structure. North Star’s approach to continuous improvement of its governance arrangements is evidenced through annual board member evaluations, internal appraisal of governance and periodic external effectiveness reviews, the most recent of which was completed in July 2026.

Board members’ skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with North Star’s operations and there is a structured approach to succession planning. We saw evidence of this through board observations, meetings with non-executive directors and the executive team, as well as reviewing relevant documents including meeting minutes.

North Star has a risk management and control framework that aligns to its strategic risks. The board has a good understanding of the risks facing the organisation and the sector, and there is evidence of appropriate challenge and discussion by board to ensure that controls are designed and operating effectively and that risks are being effectively mitigated.

We saw evidence that North Star carries out stress testing against its main risks and combinations of risks, with appropriate ownership and scrutiny by board and identification of comprehensive mitigation strategies.

Viability – V2 – September 2026

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection we have assurance that North Star’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. North Star has appropriately evidenced that it has an adequately funded business plan, has sufficient security in place to support its financial plans and is forecast to remain compliant with its financial covenants under a range of adverse scenarios. North Star’s board maintains effective oversight of covenant compliance, with regular reporting in place on its actual and forecast positions.

North Star is increasing its investment into its existing homes, including improvements to energy efficiency, alongside developing new homes. The level and timing of the planned investment have weakened forecast financial performance in the short-term which reduces North Star’s capacity to respond to adverse events. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a regrade to V2.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

North Star operates mainly across County Durham, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington and Hartlepool. North Star owns 4,093 social homes.

Based on its unaudited accounts for 2025/26 North Star’s turnover for the year ended 31 March 2026 was £28.5m. North Star employs 98 full-time equivalent staff. 

North Star’s development programme over the next three years aims to deliver 180 homes comprising of affordable rented, social rented and low-cost home ownership.

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