"A More Proactive Approach" to compliance confirmed by the RSH (Regulator of Social Housing)
“Moving from a reactive regulatory regime to a proactive one."
I released a post highlighting the concern that many social housing executives have about the accuracy of management information given to their Boards. What I hadn’t realised was that the day before, Bernadette Conroy, the Chair of the Social Housing Regulator, had announced at the Social Housing Annual Conference that the Regulator would be:
“Moving from a reactive regulatory regime to a proactive one.”
Her speech, details of which can be found here, reinforced how accurate data is the foundation stone on which all forms of compliance is based and that the Regulator was therefore taking a proactive approach to ensuring both awareness and accuracy. Her comments were partially in reaction to recent headlines, particularly around disrepair.
“Your boards need to have accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date stock condition data to make informed decisions about investment programmes.”
Bernadette’s conclusions were that although she was confident that landlords will be able to meet the current challenges, the Regulator would be looking to confirm this in order to ensure social housing providers were ‘viable’. This would be evidencing through three fundamentals:
1. That their risk management frameworks are robust and are supported by good data
2. That their boards have the expertise to take well informed decisions focused on delivery of strategic priorities, and
3. That they can respond and adapt to new requirements
To demonstrate conformance, I would suggest a landlord needs two things:
- A data quality and management assurance tool/software
- Access to a CIO (Chief Intelligence Officer) or someone with that type of expertise, even if it is on a part-time basis as and when needed
If your organisation has any doubt as to if it can demonstrate this, don’t panic as there are relatively simple solutions to both of these requirements that can be swiftly implemented and that will achieve an almost immediate return and impact. Sorry if I am repeating myself, but…
“The question is not if this is done by your organisation, it is simply how quickly it will be done?”
For further information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch or read some of my other recent posts:
Do I know if the information I give to my Board or Exec is correct?
An easier way to Regulatory Assurance
Disrepair Claims – Minimising the risk
Feedback on the Government’s ‘Transforming for a Digital Future’ Strategy