Decision

Nottingham Community Housing Association Limited (4817) - Regulatory Judgement: 24 July 2024

Updated 24 July 2024

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C1 Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.	First grading	July 2024
Governance	G1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our governance requirements.	Assessed and unchanged	July 2024
Viability	V1 Our judgement is that the landlord meets our viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.	Assessed and unchanged	July 2024

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Nottingham Community Housing Association Limited (NCHA) following an inspection completed in July 2024.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C1, a governance grading of G1 and a financial viability grading of V1.

Prior to this regulatory judgement, the governance and financial viability grades for NCHA were last updated in November 2023 following a stability check, to confirm grades of G1 and V1. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection we have concluded that overall NCHA is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for NCHA.

Our judgement is that NCHA meets our governance requirements. NCHA 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 NCHA.

Our judgement is that NCHA meets our financial viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios. NCHA has a strong financial profile and its stress testing demonstrates that financial capacity is built into its business plan. NCHA has provided appropriate assurance that it has access to sufficient liquidity and adequate funding in place. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a V1 grade for NCHA.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out a programmed inspection of NCHA to assess how well NCHA is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and meeting our governance and financial viability requirements. 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 and tenant scrutiny panel, spoke to tenants, held meetings with NCHA and its non-executive directors, and reviewed a wide range of documents provided by NCHA.

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

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C1 – July 2024

During the inspection NCHA provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated communal areas. Following an internal audit NCHA commissioned external, specialist support and has demonstrated delivered improvements in its health and safety processes to triage and prioritise cases accordingly.

There is evidence that NCHA keeps an accurate record of the condition of its homes through physical surveys and has a process for keeping this information up to date. NCHA has demonstrated that it uses its understanding of the quality and safety of its tenants’ homes to make decisions on future investment to maintain and improve homes.

NCHA has demonstrated that it provides an effective repairs service to tenants and takes action to improve the service and outcomes for tenants when issues occur. NCHA identified issues with the time taken to complete repairs. In response, NCHA has made a proactive and tenant-focused change to the repairs service to deliver better outcomes for its tenants.

We gained assurance that NCHA prioritises the safety and security of its communities with a homes and wellbeing promise, dedicated community safety team, a policy that sets out its approach to managing Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and hate incidents, specific targets on ASB performance and regular reports to board on a range of data to allow scrutiny of performance in this area. NCHA works with relevant organisations to deter and tackle ASB in its neighbourhoods and we were provided with examples of this happening in practice.

NCHA has an allocations policy that sets out its approach to ensuring all properties are let in a fair and transparent way. NCHA board monitors this through quarterly reports. We saw evidence of NCHA ensuring tenants are supported in sustaining their tenancy, with targets set to increase performance in relation to different tenant groups.

Overall NCHA’s approach is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards in relation to transparency, influence and accountability. NCHA’s board reviews regular reports on performance against specific targets on inclusion and treating customers fairly and with respect. NCHA 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.

NCHA regularly reviews performance information on complaints handling. It provided evidence that it learns from information on complaint types and outcomes and uses this to make improvements.  

NCHA provides a wide range of opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise its strategies, policies and services. There are clear arrangements in place through which NCHA hears from tenants. There is also evidence that feedback from tenants has directly and positively impacted service delivery. NHCA has provided appropriate assurance that it makes effective use of its performance data to shape services and provides a range of information to tenants to support effective scrutiny. Improvements made as a result of scrutiny reviews by tenants include changes to complaints handling which improved consistency and reduced response times. NCHA recognises the need to increase the number of tenants involved in influence and scrutiny activity and is continuing to focus on this.  

Governance – G1 – July 2024

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

NCHA has provided appropriate assurance that its board proactively reviews its approach to delivering against its purpose and regularly considers alternative options to ensure it is achieving value for money in making best use of resources.  

NCHA 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 annual effectiveness reviews and in-depth periodic external governance reviews. The most recent external review took place in October 2023 and recommendations have informed an action plan being monitored by the board.  

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.  

NCHA has a risk management and control framework that aligns to its strategic risks. There is evidence of robust discussion and board challenge of the controls and assurance on strategic risks and of risks being managed effectively in practice.  

There is evidence that NCHA’s board actively seeks and gains an appropriate level of assurance across a range of areas. There is evidence of how this assurance has been used to make improvements including on the approach to anti-social behaviour, stock condition data, and damp and mould.

Board ownership of stress testing, mitigation strategies and wider governance over risks through regular and structured review of golden rules is evident. Reporting to board provides sufficient detail for the board to ensure effective oversight.

Viability – V1 – July 2024

Based on the evidence gained from the inspection we have concluded that there is appropriate assurance that NCHA’s financial plans are consistent with, and support, its financial strategy. NCHA has appropriately evidenced that it has an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place to support its financial plans, and NCHA is forecast to continue to meet its financial covenants under a wide range of adverse scenarios. NCHA’s board has effective oversight of covenant compliance with actual and projected covenants reported quarterly.

NCHA has a strong financial profile, there is financial capacity built into its business plan and there are strong levels of forecast headroom with no reliance on sales (first tranche shared ownership, staircasing, or outright). NCHA forecasts strong interest cover whilst continuing to deliver its development programme and investing in existing stock to meet its de-carbonisation and stock quality aspirations.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

NCHA is an exempt charity registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Over half of its income is from social housing lettings with the rest of its income from its established care and support business, shared ownership sales and market sales.

NCHA is the only RSH registered entity in its group and is a non-profit registered provider of social housing. NCHA has five unregistered subsidiaries.

NCHA operates across 32 local authority areas in the East Midlands with its largest property holding being in the Nottingham City area. It owns and manages around 10,500 social housing homes. The majority are general needs properties, with the remainder including supporting housing, Low Cost Home Ownership and housing for older people.

At 31 March 2023, the group employed 1,034 full time equivalent staff. Group turnover for the year ended 31 March 2023 was £90.3m. NCHA plans to develop around 1,850 homes between 2024 and 2029.

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