Housing regulator issues damning judgement on Phoenix governance

Phoenix Housing Association was formed in 2007 as a result of a housing stock transfer from the Lewisham borough, aiming to be a genuinely resident-led housing association.

It manages more than 7,600 homes in the Lewisham wards of Bellingham, Catford South, Downham and Grove Park.

The housing regulator announced in July that Phoenix's ratings were under review.

Residents planned "no confidence" motion in board

Residents raised concerns about the review in a letter to the board in August, which requested a special general meeting to be convened, citing "no confidence" in the board and chief executive.

It questioned the board and executives' commitment to the community gateway model, to resident leadership and having a tenant chair and raised alleged breaches of the association's rules, concluding:

"The board and the CEO have so mismanaged Phoenix that this has resulted in the Regulator for Social Housing launching an investigation and placing Phoenix's regulatory grading under review pending further investigation. We, the undersigned shareholders, consider that this is a major threat to the Gateway Housing Association that the Residents voted to create in December 2007."

The board hastily convened a special general meeting which was held on 17 September, where they announced plans to appoint a new tenant chair and new resident board members, and appoint residents to more committees.

The motion of no confidence was averted, and the AGM took place on 29 September.

Gavin Waller was appointed as a new tenant Board Chair on 10 October, along with new tenant and leaseholder board members, and three resident appointments to committees.

The regulator published its judgement on Phoenix on 29 October, assessing the landlord's performance in delivering to the regulator's standards.

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Consumer rating downgraded to C2

The regulator found weaknesses in Phoenix's delivery of outcomes of consumer standards, particularly the Safety and Quality standard.

It found that Phoenix needed to improve how it dealt with remedial actions arising from fire risk assessments (FRA).

At its June 2024 inspection, Phoenix had 230 overdue medium risk FRA remedial actions. Despite the association's assurances to inspectors, by June 2025, the situation had got worse and there were 862 overdue actions.

Phoenix acted on this, and by September 2025 had reduced outstanding remedial actions to 427, with plans to reduce this figure to zero by May 2026. The housing association confirmed that there were no high risk outstanding actions.

The regulator also found other weaknesses, including issues with data integrity and internal audit processes and controls.

In the previous regulator's judgement in August 2024, Phoenix had achieved a consumer grade of C1. The latest judgement downgrades this to C2, meaning that there are some weaknesses and improvement is needed.

Governance rating downgraded to G3

The regulator found also found failings in Phoenix's governance, which was downgraded further this year.

The regulator sets the bar: "Landlords are expected to manage their affairs with an appropriate degree of skill, independence, diligence, effectiveness, prudence and foresight and operate with an appropriate and robust risk and control framework."

The judgement in August 2024 had found that Phoenix needed to improve its internal controls and test the effectiveness of its governance arrangements.

The recent judgement says the association "failed to ensure that systems and controls around payments were sufficiently robust to ensure covenant compliance". 

It also failed to "address skills gaps" on the board, fill vacant positions and make changes "in a timely manner".

The judgement continues: "A combination of vacant board positions, gaps in resourcing and oversight have resulted in Phoenix not providing adequate assurance of the effectiveness of its governance arrangements."

Although it notes that steps have now been taken to recruit new board members, the regulator is waiting to see whether these changes are effective in relation to the board's roles of "oversight, challenge and scrutiny to ensure that Phoenix's affairs are managed appropriately".

Phoenix governance was downgraded from G1 to G2 in August 2024; the latest judgement downgrades it further to G3.

However, the regulator found Phoenix's financial viability to be acceptable. The association had managed its position with its funders to avoid default, and its financial viability grade remains unchanged at V2.

Phoenix response to the judgement

In a public statement, Phoenix said that it was working with the regulator and had already taken action to start addressing the findings. It acknowledged that "changes need to be embedded and we need to continue to improve."

A joint statement from the new tenant chair, Gavin Wallen and Chief Executive Denise Fowler said:

"We recognise that there is a lot of work for our Board and our organisation to do. With a new Chair, strengthened Board, our excellent staff team and our exceptionally high resident satisfaction and engagement, we can address the issues identified in this judgement. Our financial position also remains strong.

“We are committed to working with the regulator to ensure that Phoenix continues to thrive as a resident led Community Gateway, delivering on our vision that ‘Together, we are building a better future for our Phoenix Community’.”

Amended 31/10/25 at 12.10 to clarify areas where Phoenix manages homes.

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