Notting Hill Genesis hit with downgrade to governance rating after inspection finds “serious regulatory concerns”

Major social landlord Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) has seen its governance rating downgraded to ‘G3’ after an inspection by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) found serious regulatory concerns, with significant improvements needed to the provider’s business planning and its control framework.

NHG, a member of the G15 group, was judged to have a risk management, internal controls and assurance framework that is not robust enough to enable the board to identify and manage risks. 

Additionally, the RSH found ‘limited evidence’ of NHG’s board providing effective oversight of landlord health and safety compliance.

“While improvements are in progress, the range of issues that have arisen is challenging,” the Regulator added.

Finally, the inspection also uncovered:

• A substantial backlog of overdue fire remediation actions.
• A lack of data on whether legal requirements had been met in a large number of third party managed buildings.
• A repairs backlog.
• A lack of up-to-date accurate data, with only around half of homes having had a survey in the last five years.

Patrick Franco, chief executive of Notting Hill Genesis, accepted that the housing group must improve. 

He said: “Today’s regulatory judgement is very disappointing for Notting Hill Genesis, but it confirms the need for us to redouble efforts in our ongoing drive to become a more resident-focused organisation…

“Unfortunately, we have not made progress quickly enough to have avoided these non-compliant consumer and governance ratings in this rightly more stringent regulatory environment.

“Today’s judgement also reinforces the need for long-term government support if social housing providers in London are to achieve the higher standards rightly expected of us. We welcome the new government’s clear commitment to increasing the delivery of much-needed social homes and look forward to working with them to ensure sufficient support in terms of retrofit and remediation, building more affordable homes, and investing in supply chains and skills development to support those programmes.”

This latest round of gradings handed down by the RSH also saw three local authority landlords, Southwark Council, Southampton City Council and West Northamptonshire Council, given C3 ratings for failing to meet consumer standards.

Following an inspection, Southwark was found to have failed to self-refer despite more than half of homes having no smoke alarms. More than half had also not had electrical condition test for over five years. 

The inspection also found:

• Almost 2,000 overdue fire safety remedial actions. 
• The last stock condition survey was undertaken in 2010, based on a sample of 10% of general needs and 20% of street properties.
• A failure to allocate homes, especially empty homes, in a fair and transparent way that took the needs of tenants and prospective tenants into account.

The inspection at Southampton meanwhile found:

• Nearly half (47%) of homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard.
• Poor performance for routine repairs, with long void turnaround times and long call waiting times – “in part due to underinvestment in planned capital works over a prolonged period.”
• Weaknesses around asbestos safety. 
• Little evidence that tenants’ views are taken into account in decision making. 
• A lack of fairness, effectiveness and timeliness in complaints handling.

West Northamptonshire Council self-referred itself in September 2024 after identifying an issue with data quality and health and safety compliance.

The RSH also found a lack of assurance over safety checks for fire, electrical, water, asbestos, lifts and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and limited evidence that remedial actions were being completed within appropriate timescales.

Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH, said: “Landlords must have robust systems to identify and manage risk. We assess providers’ governance for those landlords within our economic remit.

“We also expect all landlords to take the health and safety of tenants in their homes extremely seriously. They must listen to tenants’ concerns, acting swiftly to resolve any issues and this cannot be achieved without accurate, up-to-date data. 

“We are engaging intensively with the landlords in each of these cases as they work to put things right for tenants. A self-referral is a positive sign that a landlord is taking accountability and understands their responsibilities.”

The London Borough of Lambeth, Medway Council, East Midlands Housing Group Limited, Chesterfield Borough Council and Stevenage Borough Council received C2 gradings.