The Regulator of Social Housing has today (16 March 2022) published an update to 'Regulating the Standards' setting out its approach to grading for for-profit providers.
RSH expects all registered providers to meet the same standards, regardless of whether they have a for-profit or not-for-profit business model. All private registered providers should be well governed, financially viable, and provide safe and good quality homes for their tenants.
There are, however, differences between for-profit and not-for-profit providers which the regulator needs to take into account when assessing governance and financial viability. In particular, for-profit providers have different capital structures and cash flow dynamics and are often part of wider groups of connected companies rather than standalone organisations.
The updated edition of Regulating the Standards provides clarity to stakeholders on how the regulator will report its findings from In-Depth Assessments of for-profit providers. This will be applied when the regulator reports its first regulatory judgements of for-profit providers which own more than 1,000 homes. The updated guidance also includes a range of minor amendments to other areas of the document which are set out in the publication.
The approach aligns with the regulator's primary focus to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality that meet a range of needs.
Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive of RSH, said:
We are pleased to share our updated regulatory guidance with stakeholders, which sets out the way in which we will report our first in-depth assessments of for-profit providers.
All providers are custodians of people's homes and need to ensure those homes meet the needs of their tenants over the long term. It is vitally important that providers meet the standards that we, their tenants and stakeholders expect.
Regulating the Standards 2022 is available on the RSH website.
