Social housing landlord downgraded by RSH

The Regulator of Social Housing has downgraded social housing landlord GreenSquareAccord Limited due to serious weaknesses in its financial governance, risk management, quality of information and internal controls.

The organisation, which manages around 25,500 social homes across the West Midlands, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, received G3 and V3 ratings today (Wednesday 7 October 2026).

Although GSA has commissioned reviews and established improvement programmes, RSH found insufficient evidence that these actions had resulted in sustainable improvement.

RSH also confirmed GSA has a history of weak financial performance, failures to meet its targets, and limited capacity to absorb a reasonable range of adverse scenarios.   

And while GSA remains compliant with lender covenants, continued compliance and viability is dependent on the delivery of significant disposals, cost reductions and transformation programmes.

RSH will continue to engage intensively with GSA as it implements required recovery and transformation programmes and expect its board to consider all their available options to ensure its long-term viability. A failure to respond positively to RSH’s findings could lead to further regulatory action.

RSH Chief Executive Jonathan Walters said: “Landlords need both strong governance and sound finances to protect tenants and homes.

“In this case, our investigation has found a continued failure to address previously identified weaknesses in governance. This is unacceptable.

“Our serious concerns over GSA’s governance have undermined our assurance in the organisation’s financial resilience and long-term viability.”

GSA was placed on RSH’s gradings under review list in May 2026 so RSH could investigate if GSA was meeting the requirements of the Governance and Financial Viability Standard through responsive engagement.

RSH has now concluded that GSA does not meet the requirements of the standards, so it has been downgraded to G3/V3 and removed from the GUR.

GSA’s delivery of the consumer standards was not part of the investigation or responsive engagement, so its C2 grade published in October 2025 remains unchanged.

GSA was formed through the merger of GreenSquare Group Limited with Accord Housing Association Limited in April 2021.

The group includes seven wholly owned unregistered subsidiaries and two joint ventures. This includes GreenSquareHomes (market sale development), LowCarbonLiving Homes Limited (a timber frame manufacturing business) and Green Square Estates Limited.

Today’s regulatory judgement is available on RSH’s website.

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. Prior to this regulatory judgement, the consumer, governance and financial viability grades for GSA were last updated in a regulatory judgement published in October 2025, following an inspection, which confirmed a consumer grade of C2, a governance downgrade from G1 to G2, and a V2 grade for financial viability.
2. If RSH is investigating a landlord due to suspected serious failings, we may place them on the gradings under review list. This is likely to be where our engagement is ongoing and we think it is appropriate to alert stakeholders to the fact that we have serious concerns about that landlord’s delivery of the standards outcomes, which we are investigating. More information about the gradings under review list and RSH’s approach is available on its website.
3. On 1 April 2024 RSH introduced revised consumer standards for social housing landlords, designed to drive long-term improvements in the sector. It also began a programme of landlord inspections. The changes are a result of the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 and include stronger powers to hold landlords to account.
4. More information on RSH’s responsive engagement and programmed inspections is available on its website.
5. RSH publishes gradings for consumer, governance and viability. Local authorities only receive consumer gradings. More information can be found on our How we approach regulatory judgements and gradings page.
6. RSH promotes a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver more and better social homes. It does this by setting standards and carrying out robust regulation focusing on driving improvement in social landlords, including local authorities, and ensuring that housing associations are well-governed, financially viable and offer value for money. It takes appropriate action if the outcomes of the standards are not being delivered.
7. For media enquiries please contact Vicky.Moore@rsh.gov.uk or Christian.Cosby@RSH.gov.uk. For general enquiries email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk