Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association Limited (L4170) - Regulatory Judgement: 30 April 2025
Updated 30 April 2025
Applies to England
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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 | April 2025 |
| Governance | G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements. |
Assessed and unchanged | April 2025 |
| Viability | V2 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements. It has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance. |
Assessed and unchanged | April 2025 |
Reason for publication
We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association Limited (Poplar HARCA) following an inspection completed in April 2025.
This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C1, a governance grading of G1 and a financial viability grading of V2.
Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Poplar HARCA were last updated in December 2023 following a stability check which confirmed grades of G1 and V2. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.
Summary of the decision
From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection, it is our judgement that Poplar HARCA is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for Poplar HARCA.
Our judgement is that Poplar HARCA meets our governance requirements. Poplar HARCA 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 Poplar HARCA.
Our judgement is that Poplar HARCA meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to manage a reasonable range of adverse scenarios. Performance is weaker in the short term due to investment in existing stock, and longer term improvement relies on institutional investment to manage the future debt requirement. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for Poplar HARCA.
How we reached our judgement
We carried out an inspection of Poplar HARCA to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and meeting our governance and financial viability standards, as part of our regulatory inspection programme. During our 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 Poplar HARCA’s Joint Estates Panel, spoke to tenants, held meetings with Poplar HARCA, including non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Poplar HARCA. Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of data received through its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.
Summary of findings
Consumer – C1 – April 2025
During the inspection, Poplar HARCA provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems for ensuring the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and communal areas. Poplar HARCA also demonstrated that it understands the condition of its homes and has a process in place for keeping this information up to date and for proactively identifying potential problems. Poplar HARCA provided evidence that it uses this information to inform its decisions on future investment and the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for residents. This includes ensuring its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard.
Poplar HARCA has demonstrated it provides an effective repairs and maintenance service that responds appropriately to the urgency of works and resident vulnerabilities and is taking action to further improve the service and outcomes for residents.
Poplar HARCA provided assurance that it is delivering the outcomes of the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, including through its partnership working with other organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents. We also saw evidence that it is allocating and letting its homes in a fair and transparent way and supporting its tenants to maintain their tenancy.
In relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, we gained assurance that Poplar HARCA is delivering the required outcomes. It has a well-established resident engagement framework that provides meaningful opportunities for residents to influence and scrutinise services. The resident voice was evident through its strategies, policies, and decision making.
We saw evidence that Poplar HARCA uses the information and data it holds about the diverse needs of its residents to understand and respond to their needs. Poplar HARCA also provides residents with accessible information about its performance and services.
Poplar HARCA demonstrated that it treats tenants with fairness and respect, and specific actions are taken to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants and meet diverse needs. We saw evidence that Poplar HARCA regularly reviews performance information on complaints handling, that it learns from information on complaint types and outcomes and uses this to shape the design and delivery of services to improve outcomes for tenants.
Governance – G1 – April 2025
Poplar HARCA has provided assurance that its governance arrangements are effective in delivering its strategic objectives, social purpose and value for money. It has demonstrated that its actions are consistent with its code of governance and its legal and regulatory obligations, seeking external advice where appropriate. Poplar HARCA has provided assurance that its board proactively reviews its approach to delivering the regeneration of its communities and considers alternative options to ensure it is making the best use of resources. It has provided evidence that it has an effective business planning, risk management and control framework, with a good understanding of its risk profile and mitigations.
We saw evidence that the board is effectively managing and scrutinising its financial position, with appropriate oversight and approval of financial plans, strategies, and policies. Decision making is supported by robust stress testing, carried out against identified risks with appropriate mitigation strategies.
Poplar HARCA has a skilled and independent board that effectively scrutinises performance. Supported by an appropriate committee structure, it actively seeks assurance in relation to group activities and financial viability, providing oversight in relation to the delivery of outcomes for residents under our consumer standards. The board annually reviews its own effectiveness and performance and undertakes regular external reviews of its governance arrangements. In line with the organisation’s risks and activities, Poplar HARCA has addressed potential gaps in board member skills and experience through its succession planning.
Viability – V2 – April 2025
Based on the evidence gained from this inspection, we have concluded that there is appropriate assurance that Poplar HARCA’s financial plans are consistent with, and support its financial strategy. Poplar HARCA has access to sufficient liquidity and is forecasting to continue to meet its financial covenants. Performance against golden rules and covenants is closely monitored and regularly reported to board.
Poplar HARCA continues to meet our viability requirements but has risks to manage, including the delivery of a significant programme of development and regeneration. The forecast reduction in debt levels depends on the strategy of introducing institutional investment to fund regeneration. Shared ownership sales, and the disposal of assets which are not central to its purpose, also contribute significantly to turnover.
In recent years Poplar HARCA has increased its investment into existing homes, including to meet energy efficiency targets. Investment in the fire remediation programme constrains its financial performance and capacity in the short term.
We have assurance that Poplar HARCA has reporting and oversight in place to manage its risks, and that its stress testing shows that there is financial capacity in the business plan to mitigate a reasonable range of adverse scenarios.
Background to the judgement
About the landlord
Poplar HARCA is a charitable community benefit society established in 1998 to receive an initial transfer of homes from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with further estates being transferred until 2009. Its priority is the regeneration of estates within Poplar, east London.
Poplar HARCA is the only registered entity in the group, which includes five unregistered subsidiaries. Poplar HARCA currently owns and manages around 10,300 homes, as well as community centres and open spaces. All of its stock is located within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in east London.
Poplar HARCA’s turnover for the year ended 31 March 2024 was £89.3m. It employs the full-time equivalent of 349 staff.
Poplar HARCA’s development focus is on its community regeneration programmes. It intends to develop around 550 rental and shared ownership homes by 2031. It also plans to develop properties for market sale via its joint venture activities.
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 new 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.