ÌìÃÀÓ°Ôº

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	June 2025
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	June 2025
Viability	V1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.	Assessed and unchanged	June 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Pickering and Ferens Homes (PFH) following an inspection completed in June 2025.

This regulatory inspection confirms a consumer grade of C1, a governance grading of G1, and a financial viability grading of V1.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability gradings for PFH were last updated in January 2025, following a stability check which confirmed grades of G1 and V1. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection, it is our judgement that, overall, PFH is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment we have concluded a C1 grade for PFH.

Our judgement is that PFH meets our governance requirements. PFH has provided evidence of the effectiveness of its governance arrangements and that the board and leadership team have the skills and capacity to deliver PFH’s charitable and strategic objectives. PFH continues to effectively manage the risks associated with its activities and has performance reporting frameworks in place, allowing it to deliver its strategic and charitable objectives. Based on this assessment we have concluded a G1 grade for PFH.

Our judgement is that PFH meets our financial viability requirements. PFH has access to sufficient liquidity and continues to forecast covenant compliance with reasonable headroom. Based on this assessment we have concluded a V1 grade for PFH.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of PFH 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 board meeting and two formal tenant engagement meetings, spoke with engaged tenants, held meetings with PFH including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by PFH.

Our regulatory judgement is based on the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of information received from PFH through its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C1 – June 2025 

During the inspection, PFH provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.

In relation to the Safety and Quality Standard, we saw evidence that PFH keeps an accurate and up-to-date record of the condition of its homes through physical surveys and has a process for keeping this information up to date. PFH uses its understanding of the quality and safety of its tenants’ homes to make decisions on the planning of future investments to maintain and improve its homes.

PFH provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service to tenants and continues to implement actions to improve the service and outcomes for tenants. We reviewed evidence that gave us assurance that PFH’s approach to repairs is informed by the needs of its tenants, and that it makes use of tenants’ information that it holds to tailor its services appropriately.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we gained assurance that PFH is delivering the required outcomes. There is evidence that it works with partners including the local authority, police and mediation services to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides social housing.

We saw evidence that, in relation to the Tenancy Standard, PFH works in partnership to ensure a consistent approach to lettings. PFH reviews its lettings and allocations policy regularly to ensure all properties are let in a fair and transparent way. PFH’s board monitors this through a range of key performance indicators. We also saw evidence that PFH supports tenants to sustain tenancies. PFH has demonstrated it allocates and manages homes compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock.

In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we gained assurance that PFH is delivering the required outcomes. PFH has a good understanding of its tenants and uses this to improve services. The quality of meetings with engaged tenants that we observed was inconsistent and PFH is taking steps to improve this, but overall there is a wide range of meaningful opportunities for tenants to share their views and provide scrutiny.

There is evidence that feedback from tenants and scrutiny reviews have influenced decision making within PFH. Performance information on complaints is regularly reviewed and we have seen evidence where it has used this to improve services.

Governance – G1 – June 2025

Based on evidence gained through the inspection, there is assurance that PFH’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. PFH’s board demonstrated that it provides challenge on performance against its targets and consideration of risk appetite in strategic decision making.

PFH regularly reviews delivery of services and gains assurance through a programme of internal audits and periodic external governance reviews to improve services to its residents. The most recent external governance review was carried out in early 2025. It evidenced, throughout the inspection, a willingness to seek to improve performance and governance to deliver its objectives.

Board members’ skills, experience and knowledge are broad and aligned with PFH’s operations, and skills appraisals are carried out in order to manage its succession planning. We saw evidence of this through board observations, meetings with non-executive directors and the executive team, as well as reviewing relevant documents including meeting minutes.

PFH demonstrated that there is an appropriate risk management and control framework that aligns to its strategic risks, including deep dives into those risks. We saw evidence of robust stress testing against key risks and combinations of risks, with appropriate challenge and scrutiny by its board, and comprehensive mitigations in place.

Viability – V1 – June 2025                                                                  

Based on the evidence gained through the inspection, we have concluded there is appropriate assurance that PFH’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. PFH has evidenced that it has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place to support its financial plans, and forecasts that it will continue to meet its financial covenants under a wide range of adverse scenarios.

We have assurance that PFH’s board has a good oversight of covenant compliance, and there is evidence of strong levels of forecast headroom with no reliance on sales income. PFH forecasts strong interest cover while continuing to deliver its development programme and investing in existing stock to meet both stock quality and de-carbonisation objectives.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

PFH is a registered charity, operating in Kingston-Upon-Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.

It provides 1,453 homes, focusing on supporting independent living, predominantly for residents over 60 years old.

At 31 March 2024, PFH employed 39 full-time equivalent staff. Turnover for the year ended 31 March 2024 was £9.59m. PFH plans to develop an average of 23 new homes each year to 2028 under its current corporate plan.

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 new 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