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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	July 2026
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	July 2026
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	July 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for bpha Limited (bpha) following an inspection completed in July 2026.

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

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for bpha were last updated in December 2025 following a stability check to confirm a G1 grade for governance and a V1 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, based on the evidence provided by bpha, our judgement is that overall bpha is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for bpha.Ìý

Our judgement is that bpha meets our governance requirements. bpha 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 and charitable objectives. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for bpha.

Our judgement is that bpha meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios. bpha continues to forecast covenant compliance with sufficient headroom to absorb the financial impact of downside risks and its stress testing demonstrates that financial capacity is built into its business plan. bpha has provided appropriate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and adequate funding in place. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V1 grade for bpha.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of bpha 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 a Service Improvement Panel meeting, spoke with tenants, held meetings with bpha including its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by bpha.Ìý

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by bpha in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C1– July 2026

During the inspection, bpha provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems for ensuring the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and communal areas. bpha demonstrated that it has a good understanding of its compliance with landlord health and safety requirements. bpha also demonstrated that it understands the condition of its homes and that this informs its provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants. This includes ensuring its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard.

We gained assurance that bpha provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service. bpha regularly reviews performance and makes changes to strengthen its repairs service and improve service delivery.

bpha demonstrated that it is delivering the required outcomes of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Tenants have a wide range of opportunities to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies and services and we saw evidence that feedback from tenants has directly impacted service delivery. bpha was able to demonstrate that it uses the information it holds about the diverse needs of its tenants to tailor housing and landlord services. It recognises that it needs to continue to collect and update the tenant information it holds and has plans in place to do this.

We saw evidence that bpha has measures in place to ensure complaints are addressed fairly, promptly and effectively, and it takes action to identify themes from complaints to improve its service delivery.

bpha has provided appropriate assurance that it makes effective use of its performance information to shape services and that it provides a range of information to tenants to support effective scrutiny. Improvements made as a result of scrutiny reviews by tenants include changes to repairs and to bpha’s complaints communication.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, bpha demonstrated it works with local partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the communities where it has homes. Where performance does not meet expectations bpha seeks to learn from this and make improvements in services to tenants.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, bpha provided evidence that its approach to lettings and allocations is transparent, and that measures are in place to ensure terms of tenancy are appropriate and meet the needs of tenants. There are a range of measures in place to support tenancy sustainment including helping tenants to access financial support.Ìý

Governance – G1– July 2026

Based on evidence obtained from the inspection, we found that bpha’s governance arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risks and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives.Ìýbpha’s board demonstrated that it provides challenge on performance against the organisation’s strategic objectives and consideration of risk appetite in strategic decision making.

bpha has provided evidence that it has an effective business planning, risk management and control framework, with a good understanding of its risk profile, stress testing and mitigations.ÌýWe gained assurance that risks are being managed effectively, including in relation to investment in homes and building safety and compliance.Ìýbpha’s board seeks an appropriate level of assurance on the effectiveness of controls in place to manage risks, including through the internal audit programme.Ìýbpha uses its stress testing effectively to understand which risks have the greatest impact on its financial plan and delivery of strategic objectives.

bpha has provided appropriate assurance that its board proactively reviews its approach to delivering against its purpose and regularly considers alternative options to ensure it is achieving value for money in making best use of resources.Ìýbpha was also able to provide evidence that it has established and maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. We saw evidence that reporting to board provides sufficient detail to ensure effective oversight.

Board members’ skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of the organisation, and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills to support succession planning. We saw evidence of this through board observation, meetings with non-executive directors and the executive team.

We saw evidence of continuing governance improvement through in-depth periodic external governance reviews. The latest external in-depth review was carried out in 2025 and concluded that governance is effective, with improvements identified substantially implemented.

Viability – V1 – July 2026

Based on evidence gained through the inspection, we gained assurance that bpha’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. bpha 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 covenants under a wide range of adverse scenarios.

We have appropriate assurance that bpha’s board has effective oversight of loan covenant compliance and forecasts to maintain good levels of headroom. bpha forecasts to maintain sufficient levels of earnings from its core business to cover interest payments while continuing to invest in existing homes and deliver its development programme. bpha’s stress testing demonstrates that financial capacity is built into its business plan.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

bpha operates across the area between Oxford and Cambridge and owns around 18,000 social homes.

Based on unaudited accounts for 2025/26, bpha generated group turnover of £159.4m in the year ended 31 March 2026 and employed the full-time equivalent of 651 staff. bpha is the registered group parent, with two wholly owned subsidiaries.

Over the next five years, bpha expects to deliver around 1,700 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

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard