English Rural Welcomes Regulatory Judgement

We are pleased to share the outcome of our recent inspection by the Regulator of Social Housing, published on 29 July 2026.

The Regulator confirmed three gradings for English Rural:

▶️ Governance: G1 – maintained, meaning we meet the Regulator’s governance requirements.

▶️ Viability: V1 – regraded upward from V2, meaning we meet its viability requirements and have the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.

▶️ Consumer: C2 – our first grading under the new consumer regime. The Regulator describes C2 as meaning “there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed”. This reflects sound existing compliance, alongside areas where improvement is already in progress.

Together these are a real endorsement of English Rural as a well-run, financially secure organisation with a clear rural purpose.

What the Regulator recognised

Through the inspection, the Regulator highlighted our clear strategic focus on rural affordable housing, strong Board oversight, effective risk management, good stock condition data and strong compliance in health and safety. It also noted the positive feedback from residents and the strong attachment many people feel to their homes and to English Rural.

Where we will keep improving

The consumer standards are new for the whole sector, and like many others we know there is more to do. The areas we are focused on are the consistency of our repairs service, improving how we respond to damp and mould, making better use of resident data to tailor our services, strengthening how resident engagement shapes our decisions, and reporting more clearly to residents on how we are performing.

This work is not new. It was already underway before the inspection, and we are now bringing it together into one practical plan with realistic timescales. Working with the Regulator, our aim is to move to a C1 grading as these improvements progress.

Martin Collett, Chief Executive of English Rural, said:
“This is a very positive outcome and one we can all be proud of. Retaining G1 and returning to V1 reflects the strength of our governance and financial planning, and our first consumer grading gives us a clear and constructive route to do even better for residents. Our focus now is on turning that into real improvements that people feel in their homes and communities.”

Mark Pragnell, Chair of English Rural, said:
“We are grateful to the team from the Regulator of Social Housing for a thorough, fair and constructive process. We also want to thank our Board and our staff for the professionalism, openness and hard work they brought to every stage. Most of all, we thank our residents, who remain our first priority in everything we do.”