Letter to large providers - 1 July 2020
Published 1 July 2020
Applies to England
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To private registered providers with more than 1,000 units - by email
1 July 2020
Dear Chief Executive
Regulatory update and submission of regulatory returns
I wanted to update you on next steps in how we will regulate in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.
I previously wrote to you in March setting out how the regulator would flex its regulatory approach during the lockdown. This included pausing the In-Depth Assessment programme, extending the deadline for submission of annual accounts and the Financial Viability Accounts return to 31 December at the latest, and postponing submission of the Financial Forecast Return.
We have been monitoring the situation closely, and in consultation with our Board and stakeholders have decided that it would now be appropriate gradually to scale up our regulatory activity as the pandemic situation eases. We will be running some virtual IDAs with a small number of providers over the summer; these providers have already been contacted to ensure they are able, and willing, at this stage to accommodate an IDA. As part of that, we will begin to reinstate our work on assessing grades for those providers who are currently at G3 or G2 and who are well advanced in addressing issues identified in the current regulatory judgements.
We will also need to gather further assurance on the overall position of the sector and refresh our published grades. We will do this through the annual stability check process. To do that we will require FFRs supported by current business plans from providers by 30 September 2020. The deadline for FVA and accounts submissions remains 31 December 2020, though we strongly encourage you to submit as soon as accounts and the FVA have been signed off.
The business plan and FFR should be an accurate reflection of what you intend to do based on your current understanding including, for example, your projected development activity, planned investment in repairs and improvements to your existing stock. They should be based on robust evidence about the condition of your stock, taking into account any plans for building safety or energy efficiency work as well as the impact of Covid-19.
We appreciate that the situation remains uncertain, and that providers may be less confident in their business planning and forecasting than usual. We also understand that provider Boards will wish to be sighted on submissions and therefore we will consider requests for slightly later submissions where needed to accommodate this. Please contact your usual regulatory contact if you would like to discuss extending the timing of your submissions. However, we will open the NROSH+ system for submissions from today and would encourage you not to wait for deadlines to submit FFRs or FVAs.
As previously outlined, we have continued to ask for quarterly survey returns in line with our normal timescales, and we will continue with our recently introduced CORS return on a monthly basis for the time being.
We will continue to be flexible and proportionate in our approach to regulatory engagement and look forward to working with you in the coming months. Please also look out for updates on our website.
Kind regards