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RSH announces further measures to ‘reduce burden’ on sector
England’s social housing regulator has set out further changes it will make to its operations that are intended to “reduce the regulatory burden” on landlords during the coronavirus crisis, including a winding-down of judgements.
In an update this morning, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) said it will postpone the deadline for submitting accounts.
It also confirmed that no action will be taken against providers that miss the 30 September deadline to submit 2019/20 accounts, with the deadline being extended by three months.
The deadline for submitting financial viability assessments has been pushed back to 31 December.
While the RSH is still asking housing associations to submit their returns “as soon as reasonably practicable”, it said it recognises “that registered providers may face challenges” in doing so within the six months after year-end deadline set by legislation.
The regulator also said it will “take a proportionate response” where housing associations are unable to submit their usual level of value for money (VFM) reporting.
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“We recognise that reporting on VFM in line with the regulatory standards could prove challenging in the current circumstances as organisations are having to make rapid decisions about how to reprioritise the use of their resources,” it added.
Providers should calculate VFM metrics from their accounts and report them as usual, the RSH said, but it does not expect the sector to “spend time reflecting the impact of the current circumstances in their VFM commentary”.
In a third step responding to the pandemic, the RSH will change its regulatory judgements schedule following the decision to suspend the in-depth assessments (IDA) programme.
Judgements will continue to be published until the end of June based on work carried out before the IDA pause and being completed with the consent of the provider concerned or from ongoing reactive engagement.
They will be published as they are completed rather than in the usual monthly batches.
The judgement slowdown means work to upgrade providers with the lower ‘G2’ and ‘G3’ ratings for governance is on pause.
“We know that the providers concerned are working through actions to address issues identified in G2 and G3 judgements and this decision does not mean that the RSH has concerns about delivery of those improvements,” the RSH said.
Other regulatory judgements may still be published following mergers or based on “material reactive work unrelated to coronavirus”, it added.
The measures set out today follow an RSH announcement last month that it will take a new approach to regulation during the COVID-19 outbreak, with data reporting deadlines pushed back and social landlords surveyed on how they are coping with the crisis.
Questions for the survey – due to open for first responses on 17 April – were published yesterday.
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