Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) has maintained its G1 and V2 regulatory grades following a recent inspection by the Government’s Regulator of Social Housing, and been awarded the second highest rating of a C2 against the newly introduced Consumer Standards.
This means the organisation is broadly compliant with the Consumer Standards, but some areas were highlighted for improvement in how services are being delivered.
PCH, the largest social housing landlord in Plymouth, retained the highest possible regulatory judgment of G1 for its governance following the inspection, which shows that the organisation performs efficiently and effectively as a social housing provider, and is fully complaint with all governance requirements and standards.
PCH also maintained its V2 grade for financial viability, showing that the business is stable, reliable and dependable for its investors and for tenants, delivering services effectively and maintaining an ongoing investment in existing and new homes. A V2 grade demonstrates to lenders that PCH has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.
As well as financial viability and governance, the inspection, which took place in March and April, assessed PCH against the RSH’s Consumer Standards introduced in April 2024, using a four-tier grading system of C1 to C4 to assess how well the business is meeting the standards for:
- Safety and Quality
- Transparency, Influence and Accountability
- Tenancy
- Neighbourhood and Community
RSH inspectors met with PCH’s Executive Directors, Board members and staff to ask questions, assess documents, and also observed a Board meeting and a meeting of PCH’s Resident Communication Advisors, before speaking separately with a group of residents to ask for their thoughts.
The inspectors found some areas needing improvement in how effectively PCH was delivering the outcomes of the Consumer Standards, specifically in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, but that PCH was broadly compliant with the standards, and meeting expectations in areas including how we manage the condition of our homes, health and safety, building safety, and how we treat tenants with fairness and respect.
Improvements were identified as being needed to ensure PCH provides an effective, efficient and timely repairs service, as service performance measures were not at the target levels set by PCH, though the RSH did note that resident satisfaction with repairs was above the sector average, at 86% in the first quarter of the current financial year.
Other areas highlighted as needing improvement were PCH’s oversight of services provided to some tenants through its Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) at one estate, as well as some gaps in the overall information held about tenants with diverse needs.
Following the inspection and feedback shared by the RSH with the Executive, an action plan is being developed to drive forward changes to the key areas highlighted as needing improvements.
This includes prioritising a major project to improve PCH’s end to end repairs service, including delivering more effective management systems and clearer communication for residents, as well as improving Board’s oversight of the TMO, and filling in data gaps about what PCH knows about the diverse needs of its residents.
Jonathan Cowie, Chief Executive of Plymouth Community Homes, said: “We’re very pleased to have retained our G1 and V2 gradings, which shows the organisation is strong, effective and reliable, and we’re happy the new C2 rating reflects that PCH is broadly meeting the Consumer Standards, but we still have work to do – and this work is already well underway.
“The inspection rightly highlighted those areas we know we need to prioritise for improvements in both how we deliver services, and how well we know both our residents and their homes. We’ve made good progress since the spring, and projects are underway to review how we oversee the TMO, and how we can capture and use information about residents’ needs to better support them.
“A key focus for the year ahead is reviewing our end-to-end repairs service, prioritising new systems to better manage how we book, deliver, manage and follow up on repairs, and how we ensure residents get the very best service from us as their landlord.
“We have already improved our response times for repairs, and resident satisfaction with our repairs service has increased since the inspection, with customer perception surveys of satisfaction for repairs at 86% in Q1 2025/2026.
“We’re committed to achieving some ambitious new objectives in the coming year, and we are on a journey to address the areas where we need to improve so we can deliver truly outstanding services and improve lives in our local communities.
“I’d like to thank the Regulator for helping us to focus constructively on the changes we need to prioritise, as well as to say a particular thank you to our residents, staff, and Board members who did so much to support us through the inspection process. We truly value resident feedback to help us continuously improve, and will continue to work with our residents as we map out new objectives for the future.”
