Gentoo returns to compliant governance rating two years after downgrade

In today’s judgement, the regulator said that it now has assurance that the 29,000-home housing association has governance arrangements that “are supporting the organisation to meet its objectives”.

It noted that previously, the Gentoo board had not maintained control and oversight, while the roles of the remuneration committee lacked transparency.

Gentoo, the regulator said, accepted these conclusions in full and set up a sub-committee to investigate the issues and find a way to deal with them.

According to the judgement, Gentoo has now put in place measures identified as part of a series of independent reviews into the group’s governance. Despite these, the regulator said it still needs to improve some aspects of its governance.

Keith Loraine, chair of Gentoo, said: “This reflects the huge amount of work and priority given to rectifying the issues that led to the regulatory downgrade in October 2017.

“I would like to thank fellow board members and Gentoo colleagues for continuing to deliver an excellent service to our tenants throughout this process. We will continue to work with the regulator to ensure that we complete our journey to G1, the highest level of compliance.”

Nigel Wilson, chief executive at Gentoo, added: “This is a great step forward for Gentoo and confirms my belief that this fundamentally is a strong organisation with committed colleagues and a customer-facing culture.

“Our tenants are at the heart of everything we do and we will continue to progress with our business plan aspirations by investing £417m on improving our homes and providing an additional 900 homes for affordable rent in Sunderland by 2024.”