Bedford local housing association, bpha, has achieved the highest consumer grading from the regulator of social housing.
Bpha provides homes and services within the area between Oxford and Cambridge, with a head office in Bedford. Bpha owns or manages just over 21,000 homes and employs 730 staff.
Richard Hill, chief executive of bpha, said: “Receiving the highest consumer grading from the regulator of social housing is an important achievement for bpha.
“It reflects the hard work of colleagues across the organisation and the valuable contribution of customers, whose feedback and involvement continue to shape our services.
“We are proud of this recognition, while our focus remains on continuous improvement so that every customer consistently receives an excellent experience.”
Bpha also has G1 governance and V1 financial viability. G1 indicates effective governance, robust risk management, and strong board oversight.
V1 confirms financial capacity, funding, and resilience to manage adverse scenarios while investing in homes and services.
The inspection
The housing association says that the inspection included meetings with customers, board members and colleagues, observation of governance meetings, and a review of a wide range of evidence and performance information.
They say that the conclusion is that bpha provides effective systems to keep customers safe, delivers high quality and well-maintained homes, and has strong arrangements for customer engagement, scrutiny and accountability.
The judgement recognised that customers have a wide range of opportunities to influence services and that customer feedback has directly shaped improvements, including changes to repairs services.
The regulator also highlighted bpha’s approach to supporting tenancy sustainment and using customer insight to shape services.
