Decision

Watford Community Housing Trust (L4495) - Regulatory Judgement: 12 November 2025

Updated 12 November 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.	Based on previous assessment	July 2024
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	November 2025
Viability	V1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.	Assessed and unchanged	November 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Watford Community Housing Trust (Watford Community Housing) following a stability check completed in November 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V1. Watford Community Housing has a consumer grade of C1 from a planned inspection completed in July 2024.

Summary of the decision

Based on the relevant information and evidence we reviewed in carrying out the stability check, our judgement is that Watford Community Housing meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios. We have therefore concluded the landlord’s grade is unchanged and issue a V1 grade for Watford Community Housing

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

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

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the consumer grade for Watford Community Housing was issued in July 2024 following an inspection to issue a consumer grade of C1. 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 tenant scrutiny panel, spoke with tenants, held meetings with Watford Community Housing and its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Watford Community Housing. 

The governance and financial viability grades for Watford Community Housing were last updated in January 2025 following a stability check to issue a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V1.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out a stability check of Watford Community Housing as part of our annual stability check programme.

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

In confirming Watford Community Housing’s governance grade as part of the stability check, our work was limited to verifying that the information contained in Watford Community Housing’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 – C1 - July 2024

Below are the findings of our most recent regulatory judgement about Watford Community Housing’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards, which assessed Watford Community Housing’s consumer grade as C1. The regulatory judgement was issued in July 2024 following a programmed inspection.

During the inspection, Watford Community Housing provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems for ensuring the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. It has provided appropriate assurance that it has a good understanding of its compliance with its landlord health and safety requirements. Watford Community Housing has provided evidence that it has delivered improvements to certain aspects of landlord health and safety, in response to recommendations from internal audits and external assurance reviews. 

There is evidence that Watford Community Housing keeps an accurate and up to date record of the condition of its homes through physical surveys and has a process for keeping this information up to date. It has provided evidence that it uses its understanding of the quality and safety of tenants’ homes to make decisions on future investment to maintain and improve homes. 

Watford Community Housing has evidenced that it provides an effective repairs service to tenants and continues to implement actions to improve the service and outcomes to tenants. It identified issues with repair satisfaction levels and has made proactive, tenant focused improvements to ensure tenants receive effective communication about its timescales for repairs. 

Watford Community Housing’s board and tenants receive reporting on complaints performance and insight and there is evidence that this performance data is used by the landlord to improve its services. Watford Community Housing’s approach to complaints has been scrutinised by tenants and reviewed independently with improvements made as a result. 

Watford Community Housing has evidenced that it provides a wide range of opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise its strategies, policies and services. There is evidence that it has arrangements in place to seek the views of tenants and to enable them to provide scrutiny, which has directly influenced how it delivers services to improve outcomes for tenants. Tenant engagement is well structured and supported. Watford Community Housing acknowledges the need to continue to focus on its communication with tenants and to capture the views from a range of tenants, with strategies developed to deliver in these areas. 

Watford Community Housing has provided appropriate evidence that it is making effective use of its performance and insight information to shape services. It provides a range of information for tenants to support effective scrutiny, using neighbourhood and building level data. 

We have not reassessed Watford Community Housing against the consumer standards as part of the stability check. 

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 July 2024 following an inspection of Watford Community Housing. Below are our findings in that judgement about Watford Community Housing’s delivery of our governance requirements.

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection, there is assurance that Watford Community Housing’s governance arrangements 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 Watford Community Housing’s strategic objectives and robust consideration of risks in its decision making. 

Watford Community Housing provided evidence that there is a regular robust review of its approach to making best use of resources to deliver against the organisation’s purpose. This includes Watford Community Housing’s board regularly undertaking an appraisal of alternative options to ensure strategic value for money. 

The landlord provided appropriate 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 its board and committees is working in line with its delegations to strengthen assurance in key areas of risk and compliance. 

Continuing governance improvement is evidenced through annual effectiveness reviews and in-depth periodic external governance reviews. The most recent external governance review took place in October 2022 and Watford Community Housing has implemented its recommendations. 

Board member skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of the organisation and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills which feeds into succession planning. We have seen 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 – V1 - November 2025

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

During the July 2024 inspection, we concluded there was appropriate assurance that Watford Community Housing’s financial plans were consistent with, and support, its financial strategy, and that Watford Community Housing’s board had good oversight of covenant compliance. We have not changed our view based on the evidence reviewed during the stability check.

Watford Community Housing continues to have a strong financial profile and forecasts continued covenant compliance. Its stress testing demonstrates the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios. Watford Community Housing has provided appropriate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and adequate funding in place.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

According to the 2025 statistical data return Watford Community Housing owns 6,056 homes in the East of England and London.

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