Decision

West Kent Housing Association (LH3827) - Regulatory Judgement: 17 December 2025

Updated 17 December 2025

Applies to England

Our Judgement 

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer		Not assessed yet
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	December 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	December 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for West Kent Housing Association (West Kent) following a stability check completed in December 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.

Summary of the decision

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

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

This regulatory judgement is based on a stability check which does not include an assessment of West Kent’s delivery of the outcomes of our consumer standards.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for West Kent were last updated in December 2024 following a stability check to issue a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.

How we reached our judgement

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

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

In confirming West Kent’s governance grade as part of the stability check, our work was limited to verifying that the information contained in West Kent’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

Governance – G1 – December 2025

From the stability check, there is no evidence to indicate that a change in governance grade is required.

Viability – V2 – December 2025

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

We have assurance that West Kent’s financial plans are consistent with, and support the delivery of its strategy. West Kent has an adequately funded business plan, with access to sufficient liquidity and security and is forecasting compliance with covenants under a reasonable range of scenarios.

West Kent is increasing planned investment in its existing homes and in its information technology systems. These additional costs, together with higher inflation and interest rate pressures in the current economic environment, weaken West Kent’s interest cover position and its capacity to manage adverse events.  

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

According to the 2025 statistical data return West Kent owns 8,485 homes in the South East, mainly in Kent.

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