Decision

Plymouth Community Homes Limited (L4543) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 July 2025

Updated 30 July 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.	First grading	July 2025
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	July 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	July 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Plymouth Community Homes Limited (PCH) following an inspection completed in July 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C2, a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2. Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for PCH were last updated in January 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, it is our judgement that there are some weaknesses in PCH’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for PCH.

Our judgement is that PCH meets our governance requirements. PCH 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 objectives. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for PCH.

Our judgement is that PCH meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. PCH has a number of financial risks that need to be managed due to increased investment in its existing homes and its development programme. PCH has provided appropriate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and has adequate funding in place. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for PCH.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of PCH 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 resident advisers meeting, spoke with tenants, held meetings with PCH including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by PCH.

Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all of the information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information received from PCH through its regulatory returns and other regulatory activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – July 2025

During the inspection, we received assurance that PCH meets the requirements of the Safety and Quality Standard but needs to improve some service outcomes.PCH 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. PCH demonstrated that it has sufficient oversight of landlord health and safety compliance and an improving level of assurance on building safety. PCH continues to increase the proportion of homes subject to a physical survey within a five year cycle, with an appropriate level of cost factored into PCH’s plans for related works.

We found evidence of weaknesses in the provision of an effective, efficient and timely repairs service. Service performance and tenant satisfaction measures relating to the time taken to complete repairs have not yet met PCHs target levels. PCH has significantly reduced its backlog of repairs, including the priority cases with additional resources allocated, but further work is required to ensure delivery consistently meets target timescales. We have assurance that PCH has appropriate plans in place to deliver the required improvements. Through our ongoing engagement work we will continue to seek assurance from PCH that sufficient progress is being made to improve the service and outcomes for tenants.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, PCH demonstrated it works with local partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the communities where it has homes. Whilst the number of complaints has increased and satisfaction has decreased, we received assurance that PCH has sight of and is seeking to address this.

Throughout the inspection process with PCH, we saw evidence that it treats tenants with fairness and respect. However, we found that PCH has limited oversight of the services provided to a section of its tenants through its tenant management organisation, and there are gaps in the information it holds about its tenants and their diverse needs. Whilst there was some evidence that PCH takes diverse needs into account in its service delivery, this was not consistent enough to maintain fair access and equitable outcomes for all tenants.

We received assurance that PCH takes tenants’ views into account in decision-making about how services are delivered and offers a wide range of opportunities for meaningful engagement. We saw evidence that PCH has a clear commitment to hearing tenant’s views and feedback within its governance structures, and the tenants we spoke with were positive about how PCH engages with them, although there remains some scope for improvement. Following a review in 2024, PCH changed the way it engages with tenants including amending its tenant scrutiny model. We have not yet seen sufficient evidence that PCH provides all necessary information in a variety of formats to enable tenants to effectively scrutinise performance to improve service outcomes.

We received assurance that PCH meets the majority of the requirements of the Tenancy Standard, although there is evidence that some specific regulatory expectations have not consistently been delivered. We noted that tenancy policies have not been periodically reviewed and require updating.

Governance – G1 – July 2025

Based on the evidence gained from during the inspection, we have assurance that PCH’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, enabling it to deliver its objectives.

We found evidence that the board has the necessary skills and experience to deliver its plan. PCH’s board has demonstrated that it has appropriate oversight of the organisation’s key strategic risks, including evidence that it is sighted on landlord health and safety compliance and asset management risks.

Our inspection found that PCH has sufficient oversight of its financial plans and has undertaken a range of sensitivity and scenario testing that indicate it is able to deal with a reasonable range of adverse variances. There is also a suitable suite of triggers and mitigations in place to manage downside risk.

PCH meets our expectations on value for money. PCH has a focus on investing in existing homes and plans to increase the development of new homes to meet increasing demand for affordable homes to buy and rent. In doing so, PCH has proactively managed the risk of converting affordable rents back to social rents for around 2,000 homes whilst managing the impact on the business plan.

Performance is managed through a suite of key performance indicators with regular reporting in place, and delivery of strategic objectives is broadly on track. Where performance falls below expectations, PCH has plans in place to address this.

We have assurance that PCH has an appropriate risk management and internal control assurance framework in place, supported through a variety of internal audit and specialist reviews where necessary.

Viability – V2 – July 2025

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection, we have assurance that PCH’s financial plans are consistent with and support its financial strategy. PCH has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place, and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants under a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. Whilst PCH has some exposure to the housing market, it is not reliant on surpluses from sales to achieve covenant compliance.

PCH has material financial exposures that it must continue to manage. PCH is increasing investment in its existing homes, including delivering energy efficiency and building safety works, whilst addressing an increase in costs and a rise in demand for repairs. In the longer term, further work will be required in relation to some of PCH’s high-rise buildings and options for this work are currently being considered. In addition, PCH forecasts a significant increase in the number of new homes it plans to deliver. This restricts its capacity to respond to a wide range of financial risks.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

PCH is the parent and only landlord within the group. It owns and manages 14,740 homes across Plymouth and the surrounding areas. It has two unregistered subsidiaries, Plymouth Community Homes Regeneration Company Ltd, a design and build company; and Plymouth Community Homes Energy Ltd, which installs and manages photovoltaic panels under a license agreement.

Based on unaudited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025, PCH employed 652 full-time equivalent staff and reported a turnover of £93.5m.

PCH aims to develop approximately 300 new homes per annum over the next four 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