Decision

Rooftop Housing Group Limited (L4404) - Regulatory Judgement: 12 November 2025

Updated 12 November 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	September 2024
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Unchanged	November 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	November 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Rooftop Housing Group Limited (Rooftop) following a stability check completed in November 2025.

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

Summary of the decision

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

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

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

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the landlord’s most recent consumer, governance and viability grades were C2, G1 and V2, which were issued in September 2024 following an inspection. During the inspection, we considered all four of the consumer standards: the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, the Safety and Quality Standard, the Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. During the inspection we observed a board meeting, attended a tenant scrutiny panel, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Rooftop and its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Rooftop.

How we reached our judgement

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

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

In confirming Rooftop’s governance grade as part of the stability check, our work was limited to verifying that the information contained in Rooftop’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 - September 2024

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

During the inspection Rooftop provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems for ensuring the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. Rooftop has an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of its homes at an individual property level that reliably informs its provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants and it ensures that tenants’ homes meet the Decent Homes Standard. Performance information on compliance with legal requirements is regularly reported to Rooftop’s board. Where stock condition surveys have identified potential hazards it has acted appropriately to make improvements and has appointed specialist contractors to undertake remedial work where necessary. Rooftop has also sought independent assurance in strengthening its approach to fire safety.

We saw evidence of weaknesses in Rooftop’s provision of an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which it is responsible. In particular, it continues to have challenges with meeting deadlines for both urgent and non-urgent works and is taking steps to improve performance in this.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we gained assurance that Rooftop is co-operating with relevant partners to deter and manage anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods in which it provides social housing. It also works co-operatively with other agencies tackling domestic abuse and enables tenants to access appropriate support and advice.

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we saw evidence that Rooftop takes tenants’ views into account in its decision making about how landlord services are delivered, and that it communicates how tenants’ views have been considered. A customer scrutiny panel is in place and there is evidence that it is supported to carry out scrutiny reviews of services. These have included an assessment of the effectiveness of Rooftop’s approach to handling cases of anti-social behaviour, the delivery of grounds maintenance services, and of its approach to support digital inclusion. The outcomes of the panel’s work are reported to Rooftop’s audit and risk committee and there is evidence that the panel’s recommendations have been implemented.

To ensure that it continues to take tenants’ views into account in its decision making about how landlord services are delivered, Rooftop is taking steps to strengthen tenant engagement including setting up three customer experience groups.

Rooftop regularly publishes performance information including quarterly feedback and service improvement reports to its tenants. Rooftop’s commitment to fair and respectful treatment of its tenants is reflected in its updated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, and there is ongoing work to improve its understanding of its tenants to provide services that meet a range of diverse needs.

We saw evidence of weaknesses in Rooftop’s complaints handling, in particular, it had not consistently responded to complaints in a timely manner. Rooftop has now made changes to its approach to complaints handling to improve performance and ensure it is addressing complaints fairly, effectively and promptly.

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

Governance – G1 - November 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 September 2024 following a programmed inspection of Rooftop. Below are the findings in that judgement about Rooftop’s delivery of our governance requirements.

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection, there is assurance that Rooftop’s governance arrangements are meeting the requirements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard. The skills, experience and knowledge of its leadership are appropriately aligned with the activities of the organisation and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills to support succession planning. Rooftop’s board actively challenges and seeks assurance regarding Rooftop’s management of risks.

Rooftop has 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. The board has clear ownership and oversight of operational and strategic performance, and it has demonstrated a willingness and ability to address the areas of underperformance that have contributed to its C2 grade. This includes formulation of a repairs improvement plan and the establishment of a centralised complaints team.

Roles and responsibilities within the wider governance structure are well defined and understood, and the board has demonstrably acted to mitigate financial risk and supported Rooftop’s compliance with the financial viability elements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.

Rooftop is committed to continuous governance improvement that is evidenced through annual effectiveness reviews and in-depth periodic external governance reviews. The most recent external review was completed in June 2022 and recommendations informed an action plan that has been monitored by the board.

We continue to actively engage with Rooftop to monitor its progress in improving aspects of its governance arrangements. 

Viability – V2 - November 2025

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

We have assurance that Rooftop is meeting covenant requirements and has access to sufficient liquidity to support the delivery of its strategy.

However, the business plan demonstrates a decline in financial resilience primarily due to an increase in expenditure on existing stock and the risk from not meeting its sales targets.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

According to the 2025 Statistical Data Return Rooftop owns 6,550 homes predominately in the West Midlands.

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