How your home and services are regulated

Everything you need to know about how your home and services are regulated.

We are a Registered Provider of Social Housing. To make sure that we are meeting the various standards set out for your homes and services, we are regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

The RSH has two main objectives, which are set by the government. It achieves these by measuring our performance against a number of regulatory standards:

1. An economic objective: to make sure that registered providers (landlords) are well-managed and financially stable

The economic standards are:

• Governance and Financial Viability Standard – Landlords are awarded a score against this standard based on how well they are run and if they are financially viable. The highest score is G1/V1. Our score is G1/V2. This means that we meet the Regulator’s governance requirements. We're considered to be financially strong enough to deal with a range of different scenarios, but we need to manage risks to remain compliant. At the moment, many large landlords are rated as V2 because of the increased costs we are facing as a result of the recent high inflation and the need to fund large programmes of works to improve building quality, safety and environmental performance.
• Value for Money Standard – Landlords are measured on whether they make the best use of the resources they have, including the rent it receives from residents.
• Rent Standard – Landlords are measured on whether they are setting rents in accordance with government policy for social housing rents.

2. A consumer objective: to make sure that residents get quality accommodation, have choice and protection, and can hold their landlords to account

The Consumer standards as of 1 April 2024 are:

• Safety and Quality Standard – requires landlords to provide safe and good quality homes and landlord services to residents.
• Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard –  emphasises the importance of open communication, fairness, and respect between landlords and residents. This allows residents to access services, voice concerns, and influence decisions that impact them.
• Neighbourhood and Community Standard – requires landlords to work with other organisations, groups and authorities to create safe and well-maintained neighbourhoods where residents feel secure in their homes.
• Tenancy Standard – sets out the requirements landlords must meet when allocating and letting homes to make sure they’re doing this responsibly and in line with legislation.

The Regulator has introduced a new consumer grading system to measure how well we’re meeting these consumer standards. This new grading system will complement the one for Governance and Viability.

We can be awarded a grade from C1 to C4. Gradings of C3 or C4 will be considered non-compliant and could result in potential regulatory action. Any social housing provider who scores C2 or below must put an improvement plan in place and communicate this with residents.

We expect inspections for this new consumer grade to take place around summer 2025 and it will be carried out together with the Regulator’s compliance checks for the Governance and Financial Viability Standard.

Following an inspection, the RSH publishes a ‘regulatory judgement. For more information on how the RSH approaches regulatory judgements and gradings, visit the government’s website.

Read the current regulatory judgement of L&Q.

The RSH does not resolve individual disputes between tenants and landlords. Instead, this is the role of the Housing Ombudsman Service. To find out more about how to complain to the Housing Ombudsman, visit our complaints page.