Regulatory compliance

We need to improve our understanding of the buildings that are managed by third-party managing agents by ensuring we have seen evidence that vital checks are happening for such buildings.

We have put in place dedicated resources to obtain any outstanding documents from external managing agents, so we can be assured of the health and safety of residents who live in homes managed by such agents.

We have made system and process improvements to how we collect compliance information from third parties based on external expert advice. We have also developed a robust approach to escalation when compliance information is not provided. We have more work to do to ensure these improvements are embedded in our ways of working in the long term.

Performance in relation to the building safety compliance metrics, which we report to the regulator as part of our Tenant Satisfaction Measures return, has significantly improved since last year. All areas which were under 90% last year have seen a minimum gain of 10%.

To improve our oversight and reporting for buildings that are managed by third-party managing agents and provide assurance that any health and safety risks are being managed effectively.

We have now put in place a new policy and process. We continue to embed in our ways of working the system and process improvements we have made on the collection of compliance information from the third-party managing agents who are responsible for the management of some of our buildings.

Where necessary, when compliance information is not provided to us in a timely way, we are using a robust approach to escalation.

We have asked an external company to review the improvements that we have made and provide assurance that we are compliant, our policies and processes are embedded effectively, and our approach meets regulatory standards. We have also asked them to identify any further improvements that we can make. The final report will be shared with the Regulatory Compliance Committee, a sub-committee of the Board, with responsibility for monitoring the delivery of our regulatory compliance plan. We will provide an update next quarter.

The Group Board continues to monitor performance in relation to the building safety compliance metrics, which we report to the regulator annually as part of our Building Safety Measures which are a subset of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures return.

One of the regulator’s concerns was that we were not completing physical assessments (stock condition surveys) of our homes as quickly as we should be, so we needed to step up activity around that.

We set ourselves a stock condition survey target of 8,500 for the year 2024-25 and exceeded this, completing 8,817 stock condition surveys in the year to March 2025.

When the regulator carried out their inspection, just over 50% of our homes had been surveyed in the last five years, this has now increased to 70.3%. We have agreed a plan with the board to accelerate this so at least 85% of homes will have been surveyed in the last five years by March 2026. We are working closely with our contractors, FFT and Rand, to stay on track and target those homes where our data suggests more urgent investment may be needed.

The information we get from the surveys is used when we make plans for replacing windows, kitchens, bathrooms and more, so if you receive a letter about this from FFT or Rand (who carry out the surveys for us) please do reply to make sure your home is included in these plans.

To ensure the information we hold about our homes enables us to identify risks to resident safety and comply with the decent homes standard, and accurately informs our asset investment plans.

When the regulator carried out their inspection, we had completed physical assessments (stock condition surveys) on just over 50% of our homes in the last five years. We have already made significant progress and at the end of September, we had reached just over 77%. We are on track to increase this to at least 85% of homes by March 2026. Our Board agreed this target by considering benchmarking with our peers as well as external statistical analysis which was able to show what types of properties might require more urgent investment. We are using this analysis to prioritise the homes identified as having the greatest likelihood of non-compliance with the Decent Homes Standard in our survey programme.

The information we get from the surveys is used when we make plans for replacing windows, kitchens, bathrooms and more and for our reporting of compliance with the Decent Homes Standard. If you receive a letter about this from FFT or Rand, the contractors who carry out the surveys for us, please do reply to make sure your home is included in these plans.

In May 2024 we changed how we arrange and oversee repairs, bringing in a dedicated delivery team to manage the process from start to finish and enable us to deliver a better repairs service to our residents. In the 12 months since, we’ve handled 133,559 jobs, with 85% of those being addressed and allocated within 48 hours.

Our new dedicated repairs hub is starting to deliver positive results, and we’ve made some headway in improving our repairs satisfaction figure. In April 2024, the month before the new team started work, customer satisfaction with their most recent repair was at 77.8%. By the end of March 2025, it had reached 81.7%.

This is positive, but we know we still have work to do to ensure that our residents consistently receive an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service.

To provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service across all homes and communal areas.

In the summer we appointed three contractors to deliver a new and improved repairs service, designed with input from residents. Over 1,000 residents and our operational colleagues helped shape the design of our new specification and contract for repairs.

These new arrangements will give us the tools to monitor and manage repairs performance more effectively than ever before, ensuring we deliver the high-quality service our residents expect and deserve.

We will introduce enhanced performance measures to ensure repairs are delivered promptly, to a high standard, and with a strong focus on resident satisfaction. These will track key outcomes such as: standard and emergency repairs completed on time, first-time fix rates, and the percentage of appointments kept. We will also monitor resident satisfaction with tradesperson behaviour, pass rates for post-inspections, and the proportion of repairs diverted to other contractors due to capacity issues.

Average completion times for standard repairs and the ability to ‘fix well and fast’ will be central measures, giving us a clear picture of where performance is strong and where we need to take action to achieve the best possible outcomes for our residents.

We have built in a number of changes to the new service which will make real difference for residents. This includes real-time updates on appointments and repairs available on My Account, residents receiving a photograph of the operative the night before they are due to carry out work in their homes and the ability for residents to book follow up work before the operative leaves their home. We are making some adjustments to our systems to support these changes, including making it easier to diagnose repairs before orders are sent to our contractors to ensure the right tradesperson attends, and making sure we have the right data visible to make decisions about trade coverage and drive strong performance in your area.

We will start to put in place the new arrangements in our central region, covering homes in RBKC, Westminster and Lambeth from November 2025, with coverage for homes in our west, north and east regions following in early 2026. Residents will start to receive repairs and maintenance from their contractor as soon as contracts begin and there will be events across London where there will be an opportunity for customers to meet their new contractors.

Following an extensive recruitment and interview process, we appointed our new resident forum. While selection was based around relevant skills and experiences, additional information provided at the application stage has helped the new forum demonstrate strong diversity that represents our communities

After an extensive training and induction programme earlier this year, the resident forum has been meeting regularly since February 2025. They have commissioned their first project, focusing on improving their communication and transparency as a group, as well as the involvement and engagement programme more widely.

We know the level of information we hold on our residents needs to improve, alongside our processes, so that we can tailor more personalised services to our residents and understand how we can serve them better.  

We have been progressing our work as part of our Know our Customer project to ensure the data we hold about our residents is useful and can help us tailor our services. As part of this work, we have consulted with residents about how we hold information about service adjustments. We want to ensure we have a clear and robust process in place to capture any service adjustments on our systems so residents’ needs are understood and considered when they receive a service from us.

To evaluate our new resident involvement model to check it is delivering as originally intended and demonstrate we take resident views into account when making decisions about how we provide services.

We have carried out a survey of our residents to explore awareness, participation, and experiences of our involvement and engagement opportunities. We also asked about barriers residents may face to get involved and what topics they would most like to engage on in future. We had a great response, with 1,802 surveys completed online and face to face during drop-ins, focus groups and other activities over the summer. 

The survey responses have provided some great insight into how our resident involvement model is working so far and the improvements we can make moving forward. For example, although just under half of residents (48%) who completed the survey were aware of the opportunities we provide for them to get involved, only 12% had ever taken part in an involvement or engagement activity. Common reasons residents gave for not taking part were related to them finding events inconvenient due to the location, timings or health or mobility limitations. Positively 72% of respondents said they would like to receive information about future involvement/engagement opportunities. Residents who are not already registered to participate in our wide range of activities can register interest in involvement activities on our website.

In addition to asking our residents what they think we have also asked an external expert to carry out a review of our resident involvement model. As well as looking at the findings from the resident survey, they will also observe a range of internal and external activities and review resident insight from other sources such as satisfaction surveys and complaints.  

The final report and any recommendations for improvements will be shared with the Resident Forum and also with the Regulatory Compliance Committee, a sub-committee of the Board, with responsibility for monitoring the delivery of our regulatory compliance plan. We will provide an update on the report’s findings next quarter.

Our enterprise risk framework continues to be developed and embedded across the organisation. An independent subject matter expert has been appointed to support in the review of the board’s risk appetite, and key risk tolerances and to undertake a maturity assessment. Systems development is also planned to enable the automation of risk assessment and control processes.

We maintain an effective risk management and internal controls assurance framework that supports good outcomes for residents.

We’ve launched ‘Stronger Decisions, Better Outcomes, an organisation-wide transformation project to strengthen governance, risk management, and assurance at Notting Hill Genesis.

To support this, we have an internal communications and training strategy in place to raise awareness and knowledge and to ensure colleagues have the resources, and tools they need to flag and manage risks effectively.

As part of this work, we continue to embed our enterprise risk framework across the organisation and the Group Board recently took part in a workshop to revisit their risk appetite statement. This session was informed by the findings of a risk appetite questionnaire completed by the organisation’s senior leadership team and will now be used to support management to recognise what the risk appetite of the Board is when needing to take decisions within the delegations given. 

In February 2025, over 75% of our colleagues completed an independent external engagement survey managed by Gallup. This allowed us to compare our results across leading companies within and outside of the UK. The results showed that we have engagement levels higher than the UK average, although there is more work to do including being clear on our priorities and supporting our employees to do their best by increasing accountabilities, cross-team working and looking at our processes, systems, structures and focus areas.

To ensure all employees are clear on our priorities for enhancing customer experience we brought 1,350 colleagues together at our staff conference, where we reviewed progress made last year, outlined our key priorities for 2025-26 and recognised employees who had gone above and beyond to deliver a great service to our residents.

To ensure stakeholders, including colleagues, are kept informed and engaged as necessary and that we have the right culture, with residents at its heart, to deliver our plans.

The results from the Gallup engagement survey we carried out earlier this year showed us that we have engagement levels higher than the UK average, but there was more work for us to do. Being clear on our priorities and supporting our employees to do their best were areas that were highlighted, and we’re addressing these issues locally and also at the organisational level through the people and culture workstream.

Over the past few months, we have undertaken a thorough review of our organisational structures and have identified areas where we need to make some changes to ensure we can deliver a more effective service to our customers. We have established a set of guiding principles to help ensure we have a more effective, efficient, and sustainable organisational design in future.

While getting our organisational structure right is critical, we recognise that how we work together is equally important. We are therefore undertaking a complementary review of ways of working using the staff Gallup engagement feedback. Embedding the right ways of working will ensure that new structures deliver sustainable improvements rather than short-term fixes. We will also undertake a broader cultural reset, which will include reviewing whether our values are fit for purpose, or need to change.

We know that it’s important that we continue to measure staff engagement, especially as we navigate a period of change. That is why we have asked our colleagues to complete the Gallup survey again, to measure progress. The findings will be reported to the Regulatory Compliance Committee and the People and Nominations Committee, both sub-committees of the Board.