Transparency data

RSH Board minutes - 26 July 2022 (accessible version)

Updated 24 February 2023

Applies to England

PUBLIC MINUTES of the RSH Board meeting

on Tuesday 26 July at 10am
2 Marsham Street and Microsoft Teams meeting

6. Remote and virtual participation

6.1 Any member may validly participate in a meeting virtually through the medium of conference telephone, video conferencing or similar form of communication equipment, provided that all persons participating in the meeting are able to hear and speak to each other throughout such meeting, or relevant part thereof. A member so participating shall be deemed to be present in person at the meeting and shall accordingly be counted in a quorum and entitled to vote.

6.2 A meeting shall be deemed to take place where the largest group of those members participating is assembled or, if there is no group which is larger than any other group, where the chair of the meeting is.

Present

• Bernadette Conroy - Chair
• Simon Dow
• Paul Smee
• Liz Butler
• Jo Boaden (MS Teams)
• Kalpesh Brahmbhatt
• Deborah Gregory
• Richard Hughes
• Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs
• Geoff Smyth
• Fiona MacGregor - Chief Executive and board member

In attendance

• Jonathan Walters - Deputy Chief Executive
• Harold Brown - Senior Assistant Director, Investigation and Enforcement
• Maxine Loftus – Director, Regulatory Operations
• Richard Peden - Director, Finance and Corporate Services
• Emma Tarran - Senior Assistant Director, Head of Legal Services and Company Secretary
• Jim Bennett - Assistant Director, Policy and Communications – for item 7
• Robert Holroyd - Assistant Director, Investigation and Enforcement - for confidential session
• Rob Dryburgh - Assistant Director, Business Intelligence - for item 7
• Angela Holden - Assistant Director, Consumer Regulation - for item 9
• Chris Kitchen – Board Secretary, Minutes

1. Welcome and apologies

01/07/22 There were apologies from Kate Dodsworth and Will Perry.

2. Declarations of Interest

02/07/22 There were new declarations of interest from JBo and RH which the Board secretary received and added to the register.

3. Minutes of last meeting – 28 June 2022

03/07/22 The confidential and public minutes from the meeting on 28 June 2022 were considered and subject to some amendments, were APPROVED.

4. Matters Arising

04/07/22 Members NOTED the actions.

5. Forward Planner

05/07/22 NOTED.

6. Chair’s Update

06/07/22 The Chair advised there had been a N&GC meeting on 7 July 2022. It was AGREED that the finalised minutes will be shared with the Board.

07/07/22 The Chair reported that along with FM and JW, she attended her first meeting with the Chair and CEO of the NHF on 12 July 2022.

08/07/23 The Chair and WP had met SAGE which was a productive meeting at which our expectations of them as a for profit provider were explained.

7. Deputy Chief Executive update

09/07/22 Members NOTED the information in the slides and the DCEO gave some additional background information.

General updates

10/07/22 Ministerial changes: Eddie Hughes MP remains in post as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Rough Sleep and Housing) and Greg Clark MP has been appointed as SoS for LUHC, but on an interim basis. DLUHC are seeking a new member of the House of Lords to replace Lord Greenhalgh as Minister to sponsor the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill.

11/07/22 Update on possible changes to rents policy: The Board was provided with an update.

14/07/22 Update on the 2022 FFR: RD presented some initial indications emerging from the 2022 FFR.

18/07/22 Stability Checks: ML advised that looking at the baseline figures, the financial position of the sector is likely to lead to a higher number of providers being graded as V2 (and potentially V3s).

19/07/22 Quarterly Survey: the QS return due in October will give more short-term assurance about providers and is based on rolling cashflow forecasts, covenant performance and fundraising requirements.

22/07/22 The information in the pack on policy updates and publications, media and stakeholder engagement were NOTED.

8. Quarterly operations update

23/07/22Members had read the paper and NOTED the updates in the paper on published RJ’s, progress on the IDA programme, updates from Annual Provider Engagement meetings, the quarterly survey results, and the reactive engagement cases.

24/07/22 Attention was drawn to the increase in reported cyber-attacks on large providers.

9. Consumer Regulation update

26/07/22 AH presented the paper which members had read. She advised that the Consumer Regulation Review for 2021/22 had been published and had received good responses. Members NOTED the outcomes from Consumer Regulation Programme Board and the priorities for the rest of the year. Reactive engagement continues and four Regulatory Notices for breaches of the consumer standards have been published this year to date and the consumer team are engaging on all four cases.

10. Investigation and Engagement update

29/07/22 Larch Housing Association: the adjourned hearing is set for 26 October 2022

30/07/22 Eldonians:

31/07/22 My Space:

Gradings under review

32/07/22 Heylo:

33/07/22 RCVDA Housing CIC:

34/07/22 The creation of a separate “for-profits” team is proving invaluable.

35/07/22 All other updates in the paper were NOTED.

11. Strategic Risk Register

36/07/22 The SRR has been seen by the board in an earlier iteration and has been thoroughly reviewed by ARAC who commended the register to the board. The Chair of ARAC confirmed that the risks are the right strategic risks for the RSH and she considered the impact and likelihood scores to be appropriate.

37/07/22 The SRR was APPROVED by the Board on the commendation of ARAC.

12. Registrations update

28/07/22 The report was NOTED.

13. Finance and Corporate Services update

39/07/22 RBP presented the paper and members NOTED the Finance update.

40/07/22 Budget allocation: RBP advised that the RSH’s budget allocation for 2022/23 has now been confirmed by DLUHC which also includes the business case for the new Consumer Regulation work. The Board APPROVED the 2022/23 budget allocations.

41/07/22 SLA Extension: the current SLA with Homes England expires at the end of September 2022. An extension to the SLA was agreed on certain services. The Board APPROVED the principle of the outlined SLA extensions.

42/07/22 EDI Strategy and action plan: members NOTED the updated strategy and action plan and were asked to approve the publication of the strategy in late summer. Members agreed that good progress had been made, but there were some queries from the DG on the drop off between applications and appointments at senior level recruitment. The issue was discussed, and management assured the board that this is an area which is continually under review. DG’s offer to be involved in future EDI discussions was supported by the Board and management. The Board APPROVED the action plans and the publication of the EDI strategy.

43/07/22 Chief Executive powers and delegations: At the Board meeting on 26 April 2022 Board agreed an extension of the current delegations from the CEO to the DCEO until the end of July 2022. That extended delegation period will expire on 31 July and a further extension was requested to ensure continuity of governance. In addition to the resolution set out in the paper, ERT advised that proposed delegations do not include the role of the AO, which is in the gift of DLUHC. MPM sets out how to deal with occasional absence (e.g. holidays). The Board AGREED.

14. Performance and Risk report Q.4

45/07/22 Members NOTED the report.

15. Review of papers/meeting

46/07/22 The Chair requested feedback from members.

16. Any Other Business

47/07/22 There were no other matters of business. The Chair thanked members and officers for their contributions to the discussions during the meeting.

Date of next meeting: 25 August 2022 – to agree the TSM Decision Statement

Next scheduled board meeting: 27 September 2022 – London