Decision

One Manchester Limited (4808) - Regulatory Judgement: 24 September 2025

Updated 24 September 2025

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

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for One Manchester Limited (One Manchester) following an inspection completed in September 2025.

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 One Manchester were last updated in February 2025 following a stability check which confirmed grades of G1 and V2. 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, our judgement is that overall One Manchester is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for One Manchester.

Our judgement is that One Manchester meets our governance requirements. It has provided evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of its governance arrangements and 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 One Manchester.

Our judgement is that One Manchester meets our financial viability requirements and has capacity to manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. However, due to investment in existing stock leading to weakened interest cover ratios, One Manchester has reduced capacity to respond to adverse events. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for One Manchester but note the severity of risks being managed by the landlord.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of One Manchester 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 customer scrutiny panel, spoke with tenants, held meetings with One Manchester including its non-executive directors, interviewed staff, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by One Manchester.

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

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C1 – September 2025 

During the inspection, One Manchester provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and communal areas. We gained assurance that One Manchester has systems in place for monitoring its current compliance position with landlord health and safety requirements, and that it has effective mechanisms to give its board assurance that controls are operating effectively.

We saw evidence that One Manchester has improved and accurate records of the condition of its homes at an individual property level based on physical surveys, and that it has a process in place for keeping this information up to date. During the inspection One Manchester demonstrated that it uses information it holds on the condition and safety of its homes to inform decisions on future investment to maintain and improve its homes.

One Manchester demonstrated that it provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs service to tenants. We saw evidence that it takes action to improve outcomes for tenants when issues occur, and it has implemented a plan to address the overall effectiveness of its repairs service, which has resulted in improved outcomes for tenants, with further improvements planned based on tenant feedback. Progress is overseen by its board, committee and the customer scrutiny panel.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, One Manchester works with relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) and hate incidents in the communities where it provides homes. It has implemented improvements to the service, including using neighbourhood officers to help manage lower risk cases, which has led to improved outcomes for tenants.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, One Manchester provided evidence that its approach to lettings and allocations is fair and transparent, and that it offers a range of tenures that are appropriate to the homes it lets and that meet the needs of tenants. Tenants are supported to sustain their tenancies through a variety of means.

One Manchester is delivering the outcomes in relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. It provided evidence that it treats tenants with fairness and respect, and that it uses the information it holds about its tenants to deliver fair and equitable outcomes and meet diverse needs.

Overall, we found that One Manchester ensures complaints are addressed fairly, promptly and effectively, and understands the impact on tenants when it gets things wrong. We saw evidence that it actively seeks to learn from complaints and uses this information to make improvements to its services and outcomes for tenants.

One Manchester demonstrated that its tenant engagement and scrutiny arrangements provide a wide range of meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise its strategies, policies and services. We saw evidence that tenant insight and scrutiny has positively impacted service delivery in a number of areas including repairs, ASB and complaints. One Manchester provided evidence that it makes effective use of its performance data to improve its services and provides a range of information to tenants to support effective scrutiny.

Governance – G1 – September 2025

Based on the evidence obtained from the inspection, we gained assurance that One Manchester has governance arrangements that enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. We saw evidence of board challenge on performance against strategic objectives and consideration of risk appetite in strategic decision making.

One Manchester provided appropriate assurance that its board proactively reviews its approach to delivering against its purpose and regularly considers alternative options to ensure it is achieving value for money in making best use of resources. An emphasis on continuing investment in existing homes and delivery of effective landlord services to tenants is balanced alongside a reduced development programme.

We saw evidence that One Manchester has an effective business planning, risk management and control framework in place, with a demonstrable understanding of its risk profile, stress testing and mitigations. We gained assurance that key risks are being managed effectively, including in relation to financial capacity, development and sales, regeneration activity, damp and mould, and landlord health and safety. One Manchester’s board actively seeks and gains an appropriate level of assurance across a range of areas.

One Manchester uses stress testing to identify emerging risks and inform decision-making as part of the wider control framework. We saw evidence that board reporting provides sufficient detail to ensure effective oversight across the group, and mitigation strategies are in place.

One Manchester provided assurance that it has established and maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. There is evidence that the relationship between the board and committees is working in line with its delegations to strengthen assurance in key areas of risk and compliance.

Board member skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of the organisation and there is a structured approach to reviewing, developing and appraising skills which feeds into succession planning. We saw evidence of this through board observation, meetings with non-executive directors and executive team members as well as reviewing relevant documents including meeting minutes.

Viability – V2 – September 2025

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

One Manchester’s increased investment into its existing homes, including to meet building safety requirements and energy efficiency targets, is putting pressure on its financial performance and One Manchester’s capacity to respond to adverse events.

The severity of material risks faced by One Manchester 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

One Manchester manages around 11,950 homes across Manchester and North West England. 

One Manchester is the parent and only RSH registered entity in the group. It has three unregistered subsidiaries, the most significant being One Manchester Property Limited through which it works in partnership to develop homes for sale on the open market.

At 31 March 2024, One Manchester employed 483 full-time equivalent staff and its turnover was £69.8m. 

One Manchester plans to build 438 new homes over the next five years.

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