Saxon Weald (L4299) - Regulatory Judgement: 27 August 2025
Updated 27 August 2025
Applies to England
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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 | G2 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements but needs to improve some aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance. |
Downgrade | August 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. |
Based on previous assessment | September 2024 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Saxon Weald to confirm a governance downgrade to G2 following responsive engagement that focused on its financial governance arrangements.
Prior to this regulatory judgement, the consumer, governance and financial viability grades for Saxon Weald were last updated in September 2024 following an inspection, which confirmed a consumer grade of C2, a governance grade of G1 and a viability grade of V2.
Summary of the decision
Our judgement is that Saxon Weald meets our governance requirements but needs to improve some aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance, specifically in relation to its financial governance and effectiveness of its risk management. Based on this assessment we have concluded a G2 grade for Saxon Weald.
How we reached our judgement
In response to a self-referral relating to procurement and contract management associated with delivery of works to its homes, specifically fire safety actions, we carried out responsive engagement that focused on Saxon Weald’s governance and risk management of these areas. This responsive engagement included reviewing documents and third-party reports provided by Saxon Weald and discussion with members of its executive team. Our regulatory judgement is based on all of the relevant information we obtained during the responsive engagement process.
Summary of findings
Consumer – C2 – September 2024
Based on evidence gained from the September 2024 inspection, we concluded that there were some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.
Saxon Weald provided assurance that it has appropriate systems to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. Saxon Weald’s fire risk assessment programme identified a number of fire safety remedial actions, a proportion of which are overdue, including some high-risk actions. We have seen evidence of steady progress being made to address the backlog and will continue to seek assurance through our ongoing engagement.
We found evidence of weaknesses in Saxon Weald’s understanding of the condition of its homes at an individual property level. Saxon Weald is taking action to increase the proportion of physical stock condition surveys, bringing this up to 100% over the next two years and maintaining this in future through a rolling five-year programme. Through our ongoing engagement with Saxon Weald, it will be expected to evidence progress in this area to provide assurance that it has an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of its homes.
We found weaknesses in the provision of an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service. We have assurance that there are appropriate plans in place with improvements underway and are monitoring progress as part of our ongoing engagement with Saxon Weald to deliver improved outcomes for tenants.
In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we gained assurance that Saxon Weald works in partnership with relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour, including hate incidents, in neighbourhoods where it provides social housing.
In relation to the Tenancy Standard, our inspection found evidence that Saxon Weald’s approach to lettings and allocations is transparent, and that measures are in place to ensure terms of tenancy are appropriate and meet the needs of tenants.
In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we gained assurance that Saxon Weald treats its tenants with fairness and respect, and that it has a range of processes in place to support this. We found weaknesses in Saxon Weald’s understanding of its tenants, and a need to broaden the range of information it holds about its tenants. We will continue to seek assurance from Saxon Weald that sufficient progress is being made in this area through our ongoing engagement.
Governance – G2 – August 2025
Based on the evidence gained from our responsive engagement, there is assurance that Saxon Weald’s governance arrangements are meeting the requirements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard. However, we have concluded that it needs to improve aspects of its governance arrangements to support continued compliance with the standard.
We have seen evidence of weaknesses in Saxon Weald’s risk and control framework relating to procurement, contract management and some aspects of financial controls. This resulted in an overspend in relation to fire safety actions which was not identified until after costs had been incurred. While this enabled an accelerated programme of works to be carried out, Saxon Weald did not ensure there were appropriate controls in place to manage the programme. Saxon Weald failed to ensure appropriate oversight and control of the procurement and ongoing management of works contracts. The financial and control framework was not sufficient to identify these additional costs until after they had been agreed. While there remained financial capacity to absorb these additional costs with compliance with funder covenants maintained, weaknesses in procurement, poor programme management and contract monitoring resulted in unknown overspends against budget.
Saxon Weald’s risk and control framework has not worked effectively in practice in relation to procurement, contract management and financial control. Therefore, its board and management have not ensured appropriate oversight and controls were in place to manage these risks. Improvement is needed to strengthen the effectiveness of its internal control assurance framework. Saxon Weald needs to strengthen its governance arrangements to ensure they operate effectively to identify, alert and highlight potential budget overspends and enable these to be managed and mitigated. Improvements are also needed to Saxon Weald’s procurement and contract management arrangements to ensure effective programme and budget management.
Saxon Weald has been transparent and co-regulatory in its engagement with us and has moved swiftly to take appropriate action to manage the risks associated with the overspend and determine the underlying causes. We are satisfied that Saxon Weald is taking action to address these issues and improve its controls. We will seek assurance through our ongoing engagement that sufficient improvements are delivered at an appropriate pace.
Viability – V2 – September 2025
Based on evidence gained from the September 2024 inspection, we have assurance that Saxon Weald’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. Saxon Weald has appropriately evidenced that it has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place to support its financial plans, and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants under a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. Saxon Weald’s board has effective oversight of funder covenant compliance.
Saxon Weald has increased its investment into existing homes, mainly driven by the energy efficiency and fire safety works to its homes, which is putting pressure on its financial performance. Saxon Weald is also developing new homes and has plans to dispose of some homes that are uneconomic to improve, when they become empty. This means Saxon Weald needs to manage risks associated with the housing market. Saxon Weald’s business plan includes efficiency savings which if not achieved could also impact on its financial position. When set in the context of current economic pressures, this reduces Saxon Weald’s capacity to respond to adverse events.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
Saxon Weald owns and manages 6,939 social housing homes across East and West Sussex and Hampshire, with the majority of stock being in the Horsham district. It plans to develop 341 homes over the next five years.
Saxon Weald employs the full-time equivalent of 270 staff and its turnover at year ended 31 March 2025 was £58.6m.
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.