This theme seeks to assess the housing providers overall structure and approach to governance.
Great Places Housing Group Limited is a registered housing provider and the parent company of two others: Great Places Housing Association, a not-for-profit with charitable status, and Plumlife Homes Limited. Both Great Places Housing Group and Great Places Housing Association operate as ‘profit-for-purpose’ organisations, reinvesting surpluses into new homes and community development.
As a Registered Provider, we are regulated by The Regulator for Social Housing, maintaining the highest Governance rating of G1 and a Financial Viability rating of V2, as confirmed in our September 2024 inspection. We also received a C2 grade under the new Consumer Standards.
The housing sector faces challenges such as rising inflation, interest rates, and a cost-of-living crisis. Despite a financial regrade in December 2022, the regulator found us financially
robust, capable of managing various risks, including those related to our development and sales programmes.
Our C2 grade reflects both strengths and areas for improvement in service delivery. This has informed our new three-year corporate plan, ‘Here for Our Customers,’ which we shared with the Regulator during the inspection.
Great Places adheres to the National Housing Federation Code of Governance 2020 and has not faced any adverse regulatory findings in the past year regarding data protection or other
compliance issues.
Customer feedback is gathered through our Customer Scrutiny Group (Insight), which conducts independent reviews. Review findings and recommendations, along with Tenant Satisfaction Measures, Complaints Reporting and wider customer satisfaction findings are reported to the Board and shared with the customer committee.
Starting in 2023/24, we established a Customer Committee, comprising two Non-Executive Directors and up to seven remunerated customer members. This committee reviews key policies and provides direct feedback to the Executive Team, with its activities reported to the Board.
