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Regulator steps in at Scottish housing co-operative
The Scottish Housing Regulator has imposed a statutory manager at Kincardine Housing Co-operative because of “serious and urgent risks to the delivery of services to tenants”, risks to its assets and concerns about “potentially inappropriate payments”.
Scottish Housing Regulator imposes statutory manager at Kincardine #ukhousingKincardine committee chair suspended #ukhousingRegulator has concerns about conflicts of interest and "potentially inappropriate payments" #ukhousingIt has suspended committee chair Paul Green, and restricted the co-operative from undertaking transactions and making payments.
Statutory manager John Mulholland will take control of all Kincardine’s affairs and commission a probe of allegations of misconduct and mismanagement.
He must also ensure the continuation of housing services beyond December when a contract with Osprey Housing ends.
In a regulation plan for the co-op, the regulator said Kincardine, which owns and manages 72 homes and has a £280,000 annual turnover, had caused concern about the management of conflicts of interest, inappropriate involvement of the management committee in operational decisions and failure to line up any alternative provider for when the Osprey contact ends.
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Kincardine’s 2016/17 annual return showed 16% of its homes did not meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, even though its previous return had stated just one home failed.
The co-op had been unable to provide assurances about its financial capacity to bring the homes up to standard and had failed to supply a 30-year financial projection, annual budget, stock condition survey results and other data sought by the regulator.
“There is a lack of openness and transparency in relation to expenditure,” the regulation plan said.
“Committee members’ expenses are substantially higher than in 2016/17 and allegations have been made about potentially inappropriate payments.”
The regulator had concluded the committee “does not understand its role and responsibilities and is unable to function effectively”.
Christine Macleod, director of regulation (governance and performance), at the regulator said: “The issues at Kincardine are serious and present an urgent risk to tenants’ interests. We’ve taken these decisive steps to use our statutory powers to ensure tenants continue to receive housing services and Kincardine’s assets are protected.”
Glenn Adcook, chief executive of Osprey Housing, said: “Osprey Housing was appointed to provide managing agent services to Kincardine Housing Co-operative in September 2016 for an interim period to July 2017.
“We agreed to continue on a restricted basis beyond that time as Kincardine had been unable to appoint a new agent following a procurement process. We stipulated at that time that we would review this arrangement after six months. That period is now almost over and we have given them the previously agreed 30 days notice of our intention to step down.
“During this arrangement we have become increasingly concerned at the governance of Kincardine Housing Co-operative, an issue also highlighted by the Scottish Housing Regulator in its Regulation Plan for the organisation published on its website last month.”
Kincardine has been approached for comment.
Update: at 11.47am, 30.11.17 This story was updated to include a statement from Osprey Housing, which was received after publication.
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