The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), which grades English social landlords on governance, financial viability and consumer standards, published 20 regulatory judgements on 29 July 2026 1. Durham Aged Mineworkers' Homes Association was the only landlord in the batch to fall, moving from G1 to G2 on governance, with the regulator citing weaknesses in board reporting, succession planning and board effectiveness 2. The association kept V1, the strongest viability grade, and took a first consumer grade of C2.
Two grades moved the other way in the same round. Eastlight Community Homes rose from C2 to C1 on consumer standards, and English Rural Housing Association from V2 to V1 on viability 3. Nineteen of the twenty landlords judged did not deteriorate on any measure.
G2 does not mean a landlord is failing. It means the regulator has found issues it expects to see fixed, and it brings closer supervision until they are. Retaining V1 alongside it says the money is sound and the board processes are not, which is a different problem from the one most readers imagine when a housing regulator downgrades somebody.
What a tenant experiences runs on a separate clock from any of this. Governance grades turn on board papers and audited accounts assembled over months; damp, disrepair and a repairs backlog, which the consumer standards measure, are visible inside a flat within a week. Last month this ledger could report only that the RSH publishes no sector-wide viability distribution, citing an incomplete first year of the new consumer regime . This month it can name the association that moved and the grade it moved to.
