Decision

The Guinness Partnership Limited (4729) - Regulatory Judgement: 29 April 2026

Updated 29 April 2026

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.​	First grading	April 2026
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	April 2026
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	April 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for The Guinness Partnership Limited (The Guinness Partnership) following an inspection completed in April 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C1, a governance grade of G1 and a financial viability grade of V2.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for The Guinness Partnership were last updated in December 2024 following a stability check to confirm a G1 grade for governance and a V2 grade for financial viability. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the assurance gained during the inspection, we have concluded that overall The Guinness Partnership is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for The Guinness Partnership. 

Our judgement is that The Guinness Partnership meets our governance requirements. The Guinness Partnership 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 The Guinness Partnership.

Our judgement is that The Guinness Partnership meets our financial viability requirements. The Guinness Partnership has sufficient liquidity and continues to forecast compliance with its lenders’ covenants. While it has capacity to withstand a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, it has exposure to financial risks related to its disposals programme and planned investment in existing homes that it needs to manage. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for The Guinness Partnership.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of The Guinness Partnership 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 group board meeting and a Resident Voice panel meeting, spoke with tenants, held meetings with The Guinness Partnership, including its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by The Guinness Partnership.

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 The Guinness Partnership in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings

Consumer – C1 – April 2026

In relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, The Guinness Partnership has provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place for ensuring the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. The Guinness Partnership has sought assurance over these processes and the information it holds as part of its commitment to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of tenants.

There is evidence that The Guinness Partnership keeps an accurate record of the condition of its homes through physical surveys and has a process in place for keeping this information up to date. The Guinness Partnership uses its understanding of the safety and quality of tenants’ homes to inform future investment in maintenance and improvement works.  

The Guinness Partnership considers the risks related to the type of homes that it owns and manages, including homes in tall buildings. We saw evidence that it seeks appropriate expert advice and puts effective mitigations in place while programmed works are planned or underway.

The Guinness Partnership provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service, and implements actions to ensure it continues to deliver good outcomes for tenants. We saw evidence that The Guinness Partnership’s approach to repairs is informed by the diverse needs of its tenants, and that it uses tenants’ information to appropriately tailor services and monitor the fairness of the repairs service it provides.  

The Guinness Partnership is delivering the outcomes of the Neighbourhood and Community Standard. We saw evidence that it works in partnership with relevant organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it delivers social housing and uses feedback from tenants to make improvements to its approach. The Guinness Partnership also demonstrated that it takes prompt and appropriate action to effectively manage anti-social behaviour cases.

In relation to the outcomes in our Tenancy Standard, The Guinness Partnership provided evidence-based assurance that it allocates its homes in a fair and transparent way and has processes in place to support tenancy sustainability. The Guinness Partnership has appropriate assurance arrangements to ensure it is delivering the required outcomes.

We saw evidence of The Guinness Partnership meeting the outcomes in the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. The Guinness Partnership demonstrated that it offers a range of meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence its strategies, policies and services, and has provided assurance that tenant feedback and insight is used to improve service outcomes. The Guinness Partnership demonstrated ongoing consideration of how to strengthen and appropriately tailor its approach to tenant engagement.

The Guinness Partnership uses relevant information to understand the diverse needs of its tenants and communities and there is evidence that it appropriately tailors its services according to these needs. The Guinness Partnership also uses relevant information to provide assurance to the board that services are being delivered fairly. The Guinness Partnership provides accessible information to tenants about its services.

We saw evidence that complaints are addressed fairly, promptly and effectively. We also saw evidence demonstrating that The Guinness Partnership analyses and understands the main themes of complaints and uses this feedback to make improvements to its service delivery.  

Governance – G1 – April 2026

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection, we have assurance that The Guinness Partnership’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. The Guinness Partnership’s board appropriately monitors strategic delivery, challenges performance against targets and considers its risk appetite in decision-making.

The Guinness Partnership maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. There is assurance that its board and committees work in line with delegations and that the board periodically reviews the effectiveness of its governance structure. The Guinness Partnership’s approach to continuous improvement of its governance arrangements is demonstrated through the implementation of recommendations from in-depth periodic external effectiveness reviews, the most recent of which was completed in February 2025. Board members’ skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of The Guinness Partnership and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills to support succession planning.

The Guinness Partnership has an appropriate risk management and control framework in place that aligns with its strategic risks, including deep dives into those risks. We saw evidence that this is overseen by the board and that risks are being managed effectively in practice.

We gained assurance that The Guinness Partnership carries out robust stress testing against its main risks both separately and in combination with appropriate ownership and scrutiny by board and comprehensively designed mitigations. Board reporting provides sufficient detail for the board to ensure appropriate oversight of the financial and commercial risks that are part of The Guinness Partnership’s structure.

We saw evidence that The Guinness Partnership has an embedded approach to achieving value for money and effectively demonstrated that it has arrangements in place to ensure it makes the most of its available resources.

Viability – V2 – April 2026

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection, we have concluded that The Guinness Partnership’s financial plans are consistent with and support its financial strategy. The Guinness Partnership has appropriately evidenced that it has an adequately funded business plan and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants.

The Guinness Partnership plans significant ongoing investment in its homes to improve their quality and building safety, which is a material exposure it needs to manage. It has also introduced an increased disposals programme that represents an uncertain cashflow for the organisation.

Although The Guinness Partnership needs to manage these risks to deliver its objectives, we have assurance that it has effective reporting and oversight in place. Stress testing demonstrates that The Guinness Partnership can manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

The Guinness Partnership operates in 111 local authority areas across England, including London, and owns around 64,930 social housing homes.

The Guinness Partnership generated turnover of £534.7m in the year ended 31 March 2025 and employed the full-time equivalent of 2,487 staff. The Guinness Partnership is the registered group parent, with eight wholly owned subsidiaries.

Over the course of the next five years, The Guinness Partnership expects to have delivered around 3,600 homes.

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