All housing associations are inspected by the Regulator of Social Housing regularly to ensure that we are providing safe homes; good services; and are well run and financially viable.
They then issue a grading in each area with one being the highest and four being the lowest. The standards cover:
Governance– how well an organisation is run and how well-led it is.
Viability – how financially well run it is – especially balancing investment and repairs to funds.
Consumer – covers how well the landlord provides safe and decent homes and services that are fair, transparent, and accountable. This covers property safety; landlord services in terms of housing and lettings; as well as resident engagement.
Over the summer, Trident were visited by the Regulator and after a robust inspection decided that we have achieved the following grades:
Governance – G1
Viability – V2
Consumer – C2
We are proud that we have regained our G1 rating and have been recognised for strengthening our board and executive team. We are also happy to see that the Regulator recognises the work that we have done to resolve our rent standard issues. These issues arose from historic mistakes and we have worked quickly to correct rent calculations including repayment of all customers overcharged. With our V2 rating that remains unchanged and a reflection of the investment that Trident is doing in our residents’ homes; we believe this shows Trident is a stable organisation that can move forward in a positive position to work closer with our tenants on building greater and meaningful engagement across our services.
While we are pleased that we have received a C2 grading which recognises that we are compliant with all standards, we also accept it is a honest reflection of our position and we are on a journey to build sustainable change and improvements for residents. We especially are looking to improve our residents’ experiences with repairs and complaints and have recently launched scrutiny projects in these areas. We will continue to work on these areas and hope to see a continued improvement in our services in the future.
Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive, said,
“As Chief Executive, just over the last 2 years I have witnessed first hand the energy and commitment of the Board and colleagues to deliver change. I am proud we have got here but no-one is under any illusion that we will need to keep driving forward our improvements.
Thanks to everyone who supported the inspection process especially our tenants who gave up their time.”