Decision

Mosscare St. Vincent's Housing Group Limited (4857) - Regulatory Judgement: 25 September 2024

Updated 25 September 2024

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C2 Our judgement is that there are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.	First grading	September 2024
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	September 2024
Viability	V2 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements. It has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.	Assessed and unchanged	September 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Mosscare St. Vincent’s Housing Group Limited (Mosscare St. Vincent’s) following an inspection completed in September 2024.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C2, a governance grading of G1 and a financial viability grading of V2.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for Mosscare St. Vincent’s were last updated in November 2023 following a stability check, to confirm grades of G1 and V2. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

Based on the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection it is our judgement that there are some weaknesses in Mosscare St. Vincent’s delivery of the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our Safety and Quality Standard. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C2 grade for Mosscare St. Vincent’s.

Our judgement is that Mosscare St. Vincent’s meets our governance requirements. Mosscare St. Vincent’s has provided evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of its governance arrangements and that it continues to effectively manage the risks of its activities, allowing it to deliver its strategic and charitable objectives. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a G1 grade for Mosscare St. Vincent’s.

Our judgement is that Mosscare St. Vincent’s meets our financial viability requirements and continues to forecast compliance with funders’ covenants. Mosscare St. Vincent’s has provided appropriate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and adequate funding in place. However, with increased spending on existing homes and the need to take additional debt to fund this investment alongside its development of new homes, Mosscare St. Vincent’s has limited capacity to manage adverse events. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V2 grade for Mosscare St. Vincent’s.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Mosscare St. Vincent’s to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and meeting our governance and financial viability requirements, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. During the inspection we considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection we observed a board meeting, a customers and communities committee meeting and tenant scrutiny panel, spoke to tenants, held meetings with Mosscare St. Vincent’s including with its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Mosscare St. Vincent’s.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information received from Mosscare St. Vincent’s through its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C2 – September 2024

During the inspection, Mosscare St. Vincent’s provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of its tenants in their homes and associated communal areas, including through its building safety programme. Mosscare St. Vincent’s has provided appropriate assurance to demonstrate that it has a good understanding of its health and safety compliance and activity to ensure compliance remains at 100%.

We found evidence of weaknesses in Mosscare St. Vincent’s understanding of the condition of its homes. Mosscare St. Vincent’s has a programme in place to gain an accurate and up to date record of the condition of its homes at an individual property level through physical surveys, however it has not currently made sufficient progress in delivering this programme. We saw evidence that Mosscare St. Vincent’s has arrangements in place for updating the information it has already collected on the condition of its homes and that it uses this to understand the quality and safety of its tenants’ homes and to inform decisions on the planning of future investment to maintain and improve homes. We will continue to engage with Mosscare St. Vincent’s while it delivers actions to make the progress needed to complete the gaps in its understanding of the condition of its homes so that this can further inform the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants.

We saw evidence that Mosscare St. Vincent’s provides an effective repairs service to tenants and takes action to improve the service and outcomes for tenants when issues occur. Mosscare St. Vincent’s identified issues with the timeliness of non-emergency repairs and in response Mosscare St. Vincent’s undertook a comprehensive review while implementing mitigating actions and has made changes to the repair service to deliver improved outcomes for tenants. We saw evidence that, in the twelve months preceding the inspection, Mosscare St. Vincent’s delivered significant improvements in the delivery of its day-to-day repairs service to ensure that it does not have a backlog.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we gained assurance that Mosscare St. Vincent’s is working in partnership with appropriate partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides social housing.

Mosscare St. Vincent’s provided evidence that it seeks to offer tenures that are appropriate for the homes it lets, taking into account the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community and the efficient use of social housing.

Overall Mosscare St. Vincent’s approach is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards in relation to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Mosscare St. Vincent’s provided evidence that it treats tenants with fairness and respect and is continuing to increase its understanding of its tenants. Mosscare St. Vincent’s demonstrates an active approach to considering tenants’ diverse needs in the design and delivery of services and monitors its performance in continuing to deliver outcomes to tenants in this area.

We saw evidence that Mosscare St. Vincent’s regularly reviews performance information on complaints handling. It provided evidence that it learns from information on complaint types and outcomes, using this to make improvements. 

Mosscare St. Vincent’s has demonstrated that the design of its engagement and scrutiny arrangements provides a wide range of meaningful opportunities for its tenants to share their views and provide scrutiny. There is evidence that feedback from tenants and scrutiny reviews influence Mosscare St. Vincent’s decision making. Mosscare St. Vincent’s has provided assurance that it makes effective use of its performance information to improve services and provides a range of information to tenants to support effective scrutiny. Improvements made as a result of scrutiny reviews by tenants include how Mosscare St. Vincent’s manages mutual exchanges, repairs and complaints handling.

Governance – G1 – September 2024

Based on evidence gained through this inspection there is assurance that Mosscare St. Vincent’s arrangements enable it to effectively manage its risk and adequately control the organisation, allowing it to deliver its objectives. Mosscare St. Vincent’s board demonstrated that it provides challenge on performance against the organisation’s strategic targets and consideration of risk appetite in strategic decision making.

Mosscare St. Vincent’s has provided appropriate assurance that its board proactively reviews its approach to delivering against its purpose and is prioritising investment in existing stock and services to tenants. Mosscare St. Vincent’s regularly considers alternative options to ensure it is achieving value for money in making best use of resources.

Mosscare St. Vincent’s was able to provide evidence that it has established and maintains clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities within its leadership and governance structure. The relationship between its board and committees is working in line with its delegations to strengthen assurance in key areas of risk and compliance.

Continuing governance improvement is evidenced through effectiveness reviews and in-depth periodic external governance reviews. The most recent external review took place in early 2024 and we saw evidence of timely implementation plans for the recommendations made.

Board member skills, experience and knowledge are aligned with the activities of the organisation and there is a structured approach to developing and appraising skills to support succession planning. We have seen evidence of this through board observation, meetings with non-executive directors and the executive team as well as reviewing relevant documents including meeting minutes.

Mosscare St. Vincent’s has demonstrated that there is an appropriate risk management and control framework that aligns to its strategic risks. There is evidence that this flows from Mosscare St. Vincent’s board through the organisation with risks being managed effectively in practice. Mosscare St. Vincent’s board actively seeks and gains an appropriate level of assurance across a range of areas.

Board ownership of stress testing and mitigation strategies is evidenced and is used to inform decisions, supplementing the wider control framework.

Viability – V2 – September 2024

Based on evidence gained from this inspection, we have assurance that Mosscare St. Vincent’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. Mosscare St. Vincent’s has an adequately funded business plan with sufficient security in place and is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants.

Mosscare St. Vincent’s is increasing investment in existing homes while continuing to develop new homes. This includes investment in improving the thermal efficiency of homes. The business plan will be funded by additional debt and interest payments associated with that which means that Mosscare St. Vincent’s capacity to respond to adverse scenarios is reduced and this requires ongoing management. 

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Mosscare St. Vincent’s is a Charitable Co-operative and Community Benefit Society operating predominantly across 18 local authority areas in the North West.

Mosscare St. Vincent’s owns 8,792 homes. Of these, 1,321 (15%) are supported or older person’s housing. It also has 482 Low Cost Home Ownership, 144 market rent and 136 leasehold homes.

At 31 March 2024, the group employed 353.5 full time equivalent staff. Group turnover for the year ended 31 March 2024 was £49.96 million. Mosscare St. Vincent’s plans to develop 1,457 new homes by 2030.

Our role and regulatory approach

We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.

We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations).

We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment.

We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page.

We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. In Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our new inspections programme from 1 April 2024. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes.

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards.

For more information about our approach to regulation, please see Regulating the standards.

Further information

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords