Correspondence

CEO letter Annex A – information on survey changes (large providers)

Published 11 March 2025

Applies to England

Introduction

This note provides an overview of the changes to data returns for 2025/26 for private registered providers (‘providers’). The changes have been made to ensure that these data returns continue to effectively support our regulatory approach and reflect provider structures and risks. Providers will be informed in good time if there are any changes or additions during the year to either our submission requirements or our deadlines.

Key messages

The following points are applicable to all returns:

• Timely and accurate data submission is a cornerstone of the co-regulatory settlement and we rely on the information supplied by providers to ensure proportionate and risk-based regulation. Failure to supply quality data in line with the timescales we outline may be reflected in our published regulatory judgements.

• Data provided through these returns may be published at a provider level and following the 2025/26 Statistical Data Return (SDR) collection, we will publish a list of all late or missing SDRs as we have done in previous years.

• It is essential that providers read the guidance available on the NROSH+ website prior to starting any of the returns. We specifically ask providers to pay attention to the Fire Safety Remediation Survey and the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Return guidance.

• Providers have a responsibility to correctly categorise and record their stock according to the latest applicable legislation. We ask that providers give particular focus to reporting of decent homes non-compliance to ensure that the submitted figures are an accurate reflection of stock performance against the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS).

• During the checking of submissions, we may contact some providers to discuss their data returns before signing them off for further analysis. Subsequently, we may contact providers where there are any regulatory issues arising from this analysis of the validated data.

• Please access NROSH+. For help and advice please refer to the guidance available and contact the referrals and regulatory enquiries team (NROSHenquiries@rsh.gov.uk and 0300 1245 225).

Financial data

We will keep the same suite of standard financial data returns that we collected in 2024.

FFR

A small number of changes have been made to the FFR for 2025. Guidance notes will be updated and providers should refer to these to ensure continued quality in their data submissions.

FVA

Minimal changes have been made to the FVA for 2025. Guidance notes will be updated, and providers should refer to these to ensure continued quality in their data submissions.

QS

The QS will continue to collect data on key financial indicators and emergent sector risks. A small number of changes have been made for 2025/26. Guidance notes will be updated on a quarterly basis and providers should refer to these to note any changes to our requirements.

Statistical Data Return

Changes have been made to update terminology and ensure the Statistical Data Return (SDR) continues to provide us with the data required to support our regulatory activity. These changes include:

Entity level information

• Removal of the “Fees Invoice Email Address” question as this is captured at a provider level in NROSH+ and is updated as part of the submission process

Low cost rental and rents

• Addition of a breakdown by criteria of DHS failures found during the most recent stock condition survey

• Addition of a line to the DHS activity question to allow for recording of adjustments to the number of units failing DHS reported in the previous year. There is also a slight wording change in this question to improve clarity

Low cost home ownership

• Expansion and revision of reporting options for both gains and losses to allow for their separate recording based on group relationships and entity types

• Harmonisation of wording with the Stock Balance Sheet to ensure consistent usage when describing sales and transfers

Stock balance sheet

• Combination of recording of sales and transfers in the losses and gains questions, excluding questions covering sales to tenants

• Expansion and revision of reporting options for gains and sales to allow for their separate recording based on group relationships and entity types

• Removal of reporting lines for Voluntary Right to Buy sales to tenants

• New wording for the local authority area breakdown questions to ensure consistent phrasing

For more details on the SDR questions and changes, please refer to the SDR Guidance materials available on the NROSH+ website including the SDR changes for 2025 document

Tenant Satisfaction Measures

Changes have been made to update terminology and ensure the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) Return continues to provide us with the data required to support our regulatory activity. These changes include:

Survey completion

• Addition of this new section for all providers to confirm how TSMs are being reported in the return

• This section collects the number of relevant tenant population households and other contextual information

• Addition of questions on the number of owned dwelling units at year end which will be used as reference data

Background

• This background section collects information on the tenant perception survey approach, sampling and methodology

• The section is split into three sub-sections depending on the stock type being reported on: Section 1a for LCRA, Section 1b for LCHO and Section 1c for LCRA and LCHO Combined. You must only complete the section for the stock types you are reporting

• Addition of questions to gather information on who conducted interviews to collect survey responses

Published TSMs

The collection of publication information has been streamlined

Revision of this section into a summary of TSMs calculated from the data entered in Sections 3 to 6 for providers to review against their published figures and confirm this has been done

TSMs reported by all

• Addition of filter questions to TSMs that may not apply for all providers

• Previously optional repairs questions have been made mandatory for 2025/26. The structure and wording of these questions has also been reviewed and amended slightly to improve clarity

TSMs reported LCRA/LCHO/Combined

• Previously optional complaints questions have been made mandatory for 2025/26. The wording of these questions has also been reviewed and amended to reflect the 2024 Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code

• Removal of the additional information previously collected on CH02 maximum timescales

Additionally, care should be taken to ensure Decent Homes Standard information is consistent between the TSM Return and the SDR.

Fire Safety Remediation Survey

Changes to the FRS for 2024/25 Q4 are minor but include an expansion of Question 6 (remediation progress):

• For buildings with both External Wall System (EWS) and other life-critical fire-safety (LCFS) defects, the remediation progress of the EWS defects and of the other LCFS defects will be collected separately, alongside the overall remediation progress of all defects

• Addition of a text box to collect details about buildings reported as having remediation plans that are unclear or incomplete or awaiting further advice

Guidance notes for the FRS will be updated for each release of this survey and providers should refer to these to note any changes to our requirements.

We expect all providers to ensure they complete both the FRS and the correct version of the building level survey in line with the guidance provided. It is essential that providers check the data provided to the FRS and building level survey match. Please see our FAQ on FRS and building level survey alignment on the NROSH+ site for more information. Providers must ensure all questions are answered for each building, including information about historic remediation works.

We share the data from the FRS with MHCLG, including information on submission statuses and data quality. The building level surveys are supplied to MHCLG as submitted to us.

Disposal notifications

Providers are required to notify us about disposals made in line with our Direction on disposal notification. The Direction and supporting guidance, available on our website, sets out the detail of what must be notified and the type of information that must be provided. Providers should read the Direction and associated guidance on NROSH+ prior to completion of the Disposal Notification Form.

Organisational data

The NROSH+ website requires your organisation to enter and maintain a suite of organisational and contact details. It is the responsibility of each individual provider to ensure that this contact information is kept updated and accurate throughout the year. This is important because we use this information to contact your organisation on regulatory matters. We take our duties in relation to data protection seriously, but to do this we rely on providers updating their contact information in a timely fashion. Guidance on how to access and amend this data is available on the NROSH+ website.

Providers must keep this information up to date. Any changes to this information should be made as soon as is reasonably possible, or at a minimum within two weeks of the change happening. When publishing this information, providers should ensure that in doing so they meet all the requirements of our standards. Further details about the requirement can be found on our website.