Yahoo News Watford Community Housing graded after regulator assessment
Watford Community Housing has been graded on its governance and viability after a regulatory assessment.
The Regulator of Social Housing published a new judgement for the housing association this week, which awarded it top marks in both areas assessed.
It kept its G1 ‘governance’ grade and V1 ‘viability’ grade from a previous inspection in July 2024, as it was found that the landlord meets all governance requirements and has the financial capability to deal with "a wide range of adverse scenarios".
Watford Community Housing office in Clarendon Road. (Image: Newsquest) Watford Community Housing chief executive Tina Barnard said: “We are delighted to have retained our G1 and V1 ratings following our stability check, as these demonstrate that we are well-governed and financially stable.
“This is on top of the C1 judgement that we achieved last year, meaning we have been awarded the three highest ratings available from the Regulator of Social Housing.
“These ratings are a great measure of how we are delivering for our customers, and our commitment to providing good-quality services and putting residents at the heart of our work.”
The stability check used the landlord’s regulatory returns and reviewed a range of documents to form a judgement about how well it is delivering the viability outcomes set out in its Governance and Financial Viability Standard.
It found that Watford Community Housing regularly reviews its approach to make the best use of resources, looks at alternative options to ensure strategic value for money where possible, and has clear roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities within its leadership.
The judgement added that there is evidence of continuing governance improvement, despite the existing high standards.
Watford Community Housing chief executive Tina Barnard. (Image: Simon Jacobs) As a 'stability check', it did not cover the ‘consumer’ category, and so the top grade (C1) given at the last inspection remains unchanged.
The previous judgement for the category said: “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.”
According to the latest data, Watford Community Housing owns 5,434 homes in the East of England and London.
