Decision

Trident Housing Association Limited (L0979) - Regulatory Judgement: 15 October 2025

Updated 15 October 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	October 2025
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Upgrade	October 2025
Rent	Our judgement is that the landlord has addressed the issues in the regulatory judgement dated December 2024.	New judgement	October 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	October 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Trident Housing Association Limited (Trident) following an inspection completed in October 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C2, a financial viability grade of V2, and a governance upgrade to G1. It also confirms that Trident has addressed the issues previously outlined in our regulatory judgement dated December 2024, which amounted to serious failings in Trident delivering the outcomes of the Rent Standard.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Trident were last updated in December 2024 following a stability check to confirm grades of G2 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, we have concluded that there are some weaknesses in Trident delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard, and Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Trident.

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

Through the inspection, Trident provided us with evidence that it has addressed the issues relating to the Rent Standard outlined in our regulatory judgement dated December 2024. Based on this assessment, we now have sufficient assurance to remove the previous judgement relating to the Rent Standard.

Our judgement is that Trident meets our financial viability requirements and has capacity to manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. Continued investment in its existing homes means that Trident has reduced capacity to respond to adverse events. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for Trident.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Trident 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 Voice Group meeting, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Trident including its non-executive directors, interviewed staff, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Trident.

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 Trident in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – October 2025 

During the inspection, Trident demonstrated it understands the condition of its homes, and this informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants. It ensures its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard and takes reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of its tenants.

However, we found weaknesses in the effectiveness of Trident’s repairs service and improvement is required. Although Trident performs well in responding to repairs within its target timescales, further work is needed to increase tenants’ satisfaction with the service and address the root causes of complaints, such as incomplete repairs and communication. We will continue to engage with Trident while it works through its existing plan to improve this service.

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we have assurance that Trident provides tenants with accessible information about its performance and services. We also saw evidence that it understands and supports tenants’ diverse needs, enhanced by a recent initiative to increase its tenant information through in-person visits, with ongoing work to build on this further.

We saw evidence that Trident provides tenants with a wide range of meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise its strategies, policies and services, both through its Customer Voice Group and more informal channels to encourage wider participation. We gained assurance that Trident listens to tenants’ views and makes changes to policies and services as a result. 

We gained assurance that Trident addresses complaints promptly and learns from its complaints to continually improve services. However, despite recent changes to the service and enhanced complaints oversight, a low level of tenant satisfaction indicates there are improvements needed to ensure it is addressing complaints fairly and effectively. We will continue to engage with Trident while it works with its tenants to understand the necessary improvements and build on actions it has already taken.

We saw evidence that Trident is delivering the outcomes of the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, including through its partnership working with other organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents, and to promote wellbeing.

Trident is delivering the outcomes of the Tenancy Standard; we saw evidence that it is allocating and letting its homes in a fair and transparent way and is supporting its tenants to maintain their tenancies.

Governance – G1 – October 2025

Trident’s governance grade was downgraded in January 2024, following our engagement in relation to serious failings in its delivery of the outcomes of the Rent Standard.

Trident has undertaken significant work to understand the weaknesses that led to the governance downgrade and has strengthened its internal controls and board assurance in response. Corrective action has also been taken to address historical rent inaccuracies and ensure refunds are made to affected tenants.

Broader governance improvements include Trident strengthening its board and leadership team, aligning skills and experience to its activities and risk profile. We gained assurance that Trident’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. Robust information directs board members’ attention to material issues and key risks and supports effective decision making. Trident’s last external governance review was in July 2025.

Trident’s board has set a clear and consistent strategic direction to deliver priorities for tenants and its social purpose. Trident considers its options for delivering its strategic aims in line with its risk appetite, including through its care and support subsidiary, responding appropriately to challenges in its external environment.

The quality of financial reporting to the board allows oversight of key financial risks, with stress testing and mitigation planning acceptable for its risk profile. Regular performance reporting against the budget and business plan assumptions provides sufficient oversight to enable the board to identify and respond to signs of risks crystalising. Trident’s board regularly seeks and gains assurance across a range of risk areas, supported by a programme of internal audits.

Trident has demonstrated its ability to identify issues and put in place improvement plans, and this will remain important to its delivery of the required improvements in relation to the consumer standards.

Rent – October 2025

As outlined in the December 2024 regulatory judgement, we concluded there had been serious failings in Trident delivering the outcomes of the Rent Standard and significant improvement was needed. We also did not have assurance that it was previously compliant with the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.

Through our responsive engagement and programmed inspection, Trident has evidenced that it has begun to refund affected tenants and provided them with clear communication and tailored support throughout. It has also strengthened its internal controls and assurance to its board to prevent recurrence. Trident has been assisted by independent specialist advice and review, and has provided assurance that the issues covered by the December 2024 regulatory judgement have been satisfactorily addressed.

Viability – V2 – October 2025

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

Trident continues to meet our viability requirements and has financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. However, as Trident is investing more in its existing homes, it has risks to manage that could impact its ability to respond to further adverse events.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Trident is a community benefit society, part of the Trident Group. It has two unregistered subsidiaries: Trident Reach, a registered charity offering care and support; and Trident Star, a company limited by shares that manages a small portfolio of shops within Trident’s estates.

At 31 March 2025, Trident owned around 3,400 homes predominantly in the West Midlands and Derbyshire and reported a turnover of £42.6m with 563 full-time equivalent staff. Trident plans to develop 14 new homes by 2027.

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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard

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