Great Places

The Housing Ombudsman is the independent service that investigates complaints about social landlords. When it finds a landlord got things wrong, it makes a finding of "service failure", "maladministration" or, for the most serious failings, "severe maladministration". Its maladministration rate counts all three together.^[4] The findings below concern Great Places Housing Group Limited.^[1]

The 2025-26 performance report. The Ombudsman recorded a maladministration rate of 60.3% for Great Places — 35 of 58 findings counted.^[4] That compares with a national rate of 62%, and 52% for landlords of a similar size and type.^[4] Of the 35, 18 were maladministration and 17 service failure; none was severe maladministration.^[4]

“The number of 'Mal' findings recorded for Great Places Housing Group Limited is 35, which gives the Maladministration rate of 60.3% (35 / 58).”^[4]

Housing Ombudsman Service, Landlord Performance Report 2025/2026 — Great Places Housing Group Limited (15 September 2026)

How the rate is counted. The report counts 29 cases the Ombudsman decided between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026, leaving out 5 that were outside its jurisdiction or withdrawn. Those cases produced 60 findings, and the rate leaves out 2 more outside its jurisdiction.^[4]

Where the findings fell. The category the Ombudsman calls "managing relations" was the largest, with 23 findings, followed by responsive repairs, with 18. The largest sub-category was complaint handling, with 20 findings; condensation, damp and mould accounted for 4.^[4]

Orders and compensation. The Ombudsman made 65 orders and 15 recommendations, and records all 65 orders due in the year as complied with within three months. It made no complaint handling failure orders — the separate orders it makes when a landlord's handling of the complaint itself fails. Its headline compensation figure — ordered and recommended combined — was £11,328.^[4]

Earlier years. The Ombudsman decided 22 Great Places cases in each of 2023-24 and 2024-25, when the rate was 76% and then 60%. It adjusted the 2023-24 figures to leave out cases outside its jurisdiction or withdrawn, so they may not match what it published at the time.^[4]

What Great Places says. In its 2024/25 complaints report, Great Places says repairs were its biggest source of complaints and that it has been reviewing its repairs service with tenants. It reports that complaints about damp and mould fell from 134 to 63 on the year before.^[6]

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is the government body that checks social landlords meet required standards for safe, decent homes. It grades landlords in three ways, and on each scale 1 is the strongest:^[1]

• consumer (C1 to C4) — the homes and services tenants receive;
• governance (G1 to G4) — how well the landlord is run;
• viability (V1 to V4) — its finances.

Great Places' consumer grade is C1. In a judgement published on 17 December 2025, the regulator upgraded it: "Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards."^[1]

Up from C2 in 2024. After an inspection that concluded in September 2024, the regulator graded Great Places C2.^[1]

What changed. The regulator found weaknesses in how Great Places oversaw health and safety risks, including the quality of the information it used to track remedial work — issues the regulator records Great Places had identified before the inspection.^[1] After further engagement, the regulator said Great Places had strengthened that oversight and improved its understanding of the condition of its homes.^[1]

What Great Places says. Great Places says the upgrade followed work to improve the data it holds on the condition of its homes and to reduce outstanding actions from its fire risk assessments.^[7]

Governance and viability. The regulator grades Great Places G1 for governance — "Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements."^[1] — and V2 for viability: "It has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance."^[1] Both grades were assessed and left unchanged in December 2025.^[1]

“Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.”^[1]

Regulator of Social Housing (GOV.UK), Great Places Housing Group Limited (L4465) - Regulatory Judgement: 17 December 2025 (17 December 2025)

“It has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.”^[1]

Regulator of Social Housing (GOV.UK), Great Places Housing Group Limited (L4465) - Regulatory Judgement: 17 December 2025 (17 December 2025)

No regulatory notice. There is no regulatory notice — a formal published finding of a breach — currently in force against Great Places; the regulator's page for it lists only its judgement.^[3]

A housing association's repair duties are just as strong as a council's — and they do not depend on its track record.

Repairs. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Great Places must keep the structure and exterior of your home in repair — the roof, walls, windows and doors — and keep the installations for heating, hot water, gas, electricity, water and sanitation in proper working order. This applies to almost every tenancy and cannot be signed away in a tenancy agreement.

Fitness for human habitation. Under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 (section 9A of the 1985 Act), your home must also be fit to live in — free from serious hazards, including damp and mould that could harm your health.

Awaab's Law. Awaab's Law now sets legally binding timescales for social landlords, housing associations included, to investigate hazards such as damp and mould and make homes safe — the disrepair page sets them out.^[8]

Safety checks. Great Places must also meet health and safety duties for its homes, such as gas and fire safety checks. The regulator found weaknesses in its oversight of these risks in 2024, and has since said that oversight was strengthened.^[1]

Complaint handling. Great Places must handle complaints under the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code, through a two-stage process with set response times — the disrepair page explains how to use it.^[11]

Great Places' own repair timescales. Great Places publishes target times for emergency and routine repairs, which the disrepair page lists.^[13]

Where to report and complain. Report a repair through the MyPlace portal, by live chat or by phone to the Customer Hub, and complain through the online form on greatplaces.org.uk.^[12]