South Liverpool Homes achieves top ratings from the Regulator of Social Housing

Published: 30 April 2025

We are pleased to announce that the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has awarded us the highest possible grading following a recent inspection. 

The inspection took place earlier this year, and today (30 April 2025) they have published their findings, giving us top marks for our compliance with the new consumer standards (C1). This is the first time we have been assessed against this standard, which was introduced last year by the RSH to strengthen the accountability of social landlords. The standard focuses on how well we deliver our services, how we keep you safe and how we ensure customers are at the heart of our decision making.   

We’ve also retained the highest score for good governance (G1) and financial viability (V1), indicating our strong position to continue investing in current homes, building new ones, and delivering essential services. 

What took place during the inspection? 

We submitted a range of documents to the RSH as evidence of our compliance with governance, financial viability, and consumer standards. The RSH reviewed these documents before coming into our office to speak to tenants, hold meetings with members of our executive team and observe a board meeting and our Customer Services Committee to get a clear understanding of how we work. This took place over several days. 

The rating we received is based on all the information gathered during the inspection. 

Key findings from the inspection 

The RSH found that we are well-managed, financially robust, provide excellent services, and ensure customer safety. Key points from their report include: 

Consumer standards (C1) 

• Understanding tenants: SLH treats tenants with fairness and respect and is continuing to increase its understanding of its tenants. 

• Tenants’ safety: SLH provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and communal areas. 

• Repairs Service: SLH has improved the outcomes of its repairs service by incorporating recommendations from tenant scrutiny activities and feedback from complaints. 

Governance (G1) 

• Performance monitoring: SLH’s Board rigorously challenges performance against the organisation’s strategic targets, monitoring instances of underperformance through clear and timebound improvement plans. 

• Risk management: SLH integrates risk appetite into strategic decision-making, and there is evidence that this flows from SLH’s Board through the organisation. 

Viability (V1) 

• Investing in homes: SLH’s business plan evidences its financial capacity to deliver its development programme to 2027, while continuing to invest in its existing homes. 

• Financial capacity: SLH maintains a well-funded business plan with sufficient security to support financial plans and absorb various adverse scenarios. 

SLH’s Chief Executive, Anna Bishop said: “Achieving the highest grading across all three areas is a significant accomplishment and reflects the hard work and commitment of the whole team at SLH. The new consumer standards are all about the customer - ensuring they are safe, listened to and have access to good services, so we are extremely pleased to have achieved a C1 grading for this standard.   

“We are delighted to have retained our G1 and V1 ratings as well, reaffirming that we are a well-run organisation that is financially sound, giving us strong foundations to continue delivering for our customers in Speke and Garston and achieve what we set out to do in our corporate plan.” 

“Over the last couple of years, we have focussed our efforts on deepening our understanding of our customers by ensuring we hear the diverse voices of tenants and use their feedback to make a positive impact on services. We have strengthened the customer voice by launching a Customer Services Committee, creating a vital link between our board and tenants, and our new customer voice framework maps out how we listen to and act upon the voice of all our customers, so that everything we do is meaningful, transparent and inclusive.” 

“We will continue working with our tenants, colleagues, board and partners to maintain these standards, and continually improve the quality of our services."

Read our full regulatory judgement on the GOV.uk website