You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
A housing association censured by the regulator for an excessive pay-off to a departing executive has begun legal proceedings to recover the cash.
Gentoo was downgraded to a non-compliant G3 rating in October, and slammed for governance failures “at the most basic level” after the English social housing regulator learned of a severance package for an unnamed director.
The Sunderland-based housing association says it is “now engaged in formal pre-action protocol” as it pursues civil action to recover the cash.
It has not revealed how much it paid the director, who it claims received the money without the approval of Gentoo’s board.
Gentoo’s 2016/17 accounts show its highest-paid member of staff received at least £660,000 that year, and £400,000 the year before.
Asked if the settlement was split across financial years, the organisation said “in some cases [exit payments] have been accrued over more than one financial year”.
Click here to read our full investigation into Gentoo
It declined to confirm whether the director responsible was the same mentioned to Inside Housing by several separate sources familiar with Gentoo’s operation.
The landlord, which was established through the stock transfer for 36,000 council homes from Sunderland Council in 2001, says it has “proactively met with Northumbria Police” over the issue.
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “We’re aware of the concerns that have been raised and if any evidence of alleged criminal offences is presented to us we will investigate these thoroughly.”
Between 2015 and 2017 Gentoo underwent a large-scale redundancy exercise, with 500 employees leaving, including 330 from the main group.
In 2015/16, it booked an £8.8m loss for the year, spending £11.3m on redundancy settlements, £1.1m of which went to departing executives.
The organisation was also censured by the regulator for the additional cost associated with bringing a number of properties up to the Decent Homes Standard.
This related to 2,545 properties – around 8% of Gentoo’s homes. Graham Gowland, executive director of property at Gentoo, said that this was “largely because of gable walls… due to the age of the properties and environmental factors such as being situated in a coastal city”.
At the end of December, 1,696 homes (5.8%) were outstanding and the work is due to be completed by the summer.