Correspondence

Letter to small registered providers - 1 May 2020

Published 1 May 2020

Applies to England

To registered providers with fewer than 1,000 units

By email - 1 May 2020

Dear Chief Executive

Changes to our regulatory approach during the outbreak and how to contact us

I hope that you and your staff and tenants are managing to stay safe and well.

I wrote to all registered providers on 26 March to set out how we are flexing our regulatory approach during the Coronavirus pandemic. I now wanted to write specifically to all providers with fewer than 1,000 homes in these unprecedented times to make sure that all registered providers of social housing are aware of the changes to the way we are operating and that you know how to contact us if your organisation is struggling with the challenges arising from Coronavirus.

As we engage with the social housing providers there are two main themes that are coming up in our discussions:

• The first is the operational challenges that arise from being a landlord during the pandemic and how you ensure the safety and well-being of your tenants and your staff. This is particularly true for landlords with care or supported housing properties.
• The second is the concerns that arise from the increased economic uncertainty that all sectors of the economy are facing.

As regulator, we have taken a number of steps to support providers as they work to address these challenges. While we have flexed our regulatory approach for those organisations with more than 1,000 homes, I wanted to make sure that everyone we regulate is aware of the role we are taking in response to Coronavirus. Some of areas we have flexed are applicable to all registered providers, including:

• the SDR submission deadline has been put back from 31 May till 31 October
• we have restricted our reporting requirements to the seven key metrics that are published in accounts, we have confirmed we will accept accounts due to be submitted to us by 30 September being received by 31 December.

We have also put a lot of information on our website about the crisis and what it means for the sector and for our role. If you had not had chance to look at the information, I would encourage you to visit the page.

Whilst our standards remain in force, we see our role currently as identifying and supporting those organisations that are struggling to meet the challenges they are facing. To that end we are surveying all providers over 1,000 homes (and those with more than 500 homes who are also providing significant amounts of care) to ask how they are coping in these unprecedented times.

We do not think that it is appropriate to ask all smaller organisations to complete this survey, but if there are any providers who are getting into difficulties they cannot resolve and tenant safety is threatened or viability is under strain, you must contact us. In such circumstances, I would encourage you to get in contact with us as soon as possible so that we are able to try and find the right support to help you to continue to operate and ensure that your tenants are kept safe and well. If you need to contact us then you should use our dedicated email address: SmallProviders@rsh.gov.uk.

If you do experience difficulty then we would want to work with you and your stakeholders to try and find the right package of support for your organisation and tenants. The sooner we are aware of issues the easier it is for us to find an appropriate support and so we would encourage you to talk to us as soon as is necessary.

I hope that you find the information on our website useful. We look forward to supporting you over the coming months and discussing any specific issues if that would be helpful.

Kind regards

Fiona MacGregor

Chief Executive