You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Regulator publishes fees statement setting out priorities
The English social housing regulator has published its first fees statement setting out its priorities for the next financial year.
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) introduced a fee system this month under which providers pay a one-off registration fee of £2,500 and, if they own more than 1,000 homes, an annual fee of £4.72 per home. Providers with fewer than 1,000 homes pay a flat fee of £300 a year.
The statement issued today sets out the HCA’s regulatory priorities and gives a breakdown of how the regulator’s £7.5m budget will be spent.
The regulator intends to make more use of automated data analysis, invest in its staff through recruitment and training and prepare to become a standalone regulator once the legislation has been passed in parliament.
It will also deliver a new IT system to manage the data it holds on providers.
READ MORE
It has also published a breakdown of how it will spend its budget over the next six months. The majority of the budget will be spent on the staff costs of direct regulation (£5.9m) and £1.9m will be spent on corporate support costs such as finance, HR and IT.
The regulator plans to bring in £4.6m from fees for assessing and grading providers. The entire budget to investigate and take enforcement action against providers will come from the government (£971,000) while £1.1m will come from providers’ fees to be spent on monitoring and analysing provider performance.
The fees statement was discussed at the first fees advisory panel which was attended by the Chartered Institute of Housing, the G15, the G320, Homes for the North, the National Housing Federation, Placeshapers, TPAS and UK Finance.
Julian Ashby, chair of the HCA Regulation Committee, said: “While the regulator is accountable to parliament for the delivery of its statutory objectives, it is important that we are transparent with stakeholders in relation to the fees we have started charging and the quality of the regulation that we deliver.
“The annual fees statement supports our commitment to transparency. The twice-yearly panel meetings are alongside our extensive stakeholder engagement and will ensure an appropriate geographic, sectoral and stakeholder coverage of views. I hope these steps demonstrate our determination to deliver value for money regulation that supports our ability to retain investors’ confidence in the sector.”
HCA regulatory fees explained
From October 2017, English housing associations are required to pay a fee to regulator the Homes and Communities Agency.
- All providers pay an initial registration fee of £2,500
- Providers with fewer than 1,000 homes also pay a flat annual fee of £300
- Those with more than 1,000 homes pay a fee of £4.72 per social housing unit owned
- The regulator estimates fees will raise £6.25m in 2017/18
- This income will be added to government funding to create a budget of £7.5m
