Regulatory Judgement
Today saw the publication of a regulatory judgement by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) which confirms compliance with regulatory requirements, by awarding FGCH a regraded financial viability grade of V2, a first consumer grade of C2 and a governance grade of G2.
The RSH’s judgement follows its latest planned inspection of FGCH, including a review of our compliance with the new Consumer Standards for the first time. As is noted in the judgement, the governance grading also factors in our self-reporting of an issue during the engagement period around the inspection.
Under the Consumer Standards the RSH assessed our performance against the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.
The regulator met with our residents and found that we provide an effective repairs service and that we treat our residents with fairness and respect. We are also pleased that it was noted that we ensure our residents views are taken into account in the development of our policies and that they influence those policies.
The regulator found evidence-based assurance that we have systems in place to ensure the health and safety our residents in their homes and that have a good understanding of landlord health and safety requirements. We recognise where we can improve reporting of this compliance and have already made changes as part of improving that.
We are judged to be delivering on the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, including through our partnership working with other organisations to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents and promote wellbeing.
In those areas of the Consumer Standards identified for improvement we are already taking action. We have significantly increased the number of our homes that have had a recent full inspection and have a programme in place to bring this to 100% within the next year.
We are pleased that the inspection found that our development risk is managed effectively, and that the board considers its risk appetite in
strategic decision making and has reflected in its plan the challenges associated with investing in our homes.
We recognise there are changes we can make in procurement and staff induction that will give greater assurance around the issue that we self-reported. We have already begun action and will ensure the regulators feedback is included in that process.
Our financial viability was regraded to V2, and the regulator confirmed we have provided evidence-based assurance that we have an adequately funded business plan, sufficient security in place to support our plans, and we forecast meeting our financial covenants.
We are continuing to develop and also increasing investment in existing homes which reflects our ambitions to support both current and future residents. In particular we are finalising our approach to carbon reduction in our original Garden City Conservation Area homes – many of which are also listed. A provisional estimate has been included within our 2025 business plan and will be subject to updates.
Rich Laval, Chair of FGCH said – “Whilst it is gratifying that the Regulator
recognises that FGCH is compliant in all three regulatory judgement areas, we will obviously work with residents to improve on those areas that the regulator has highlighted as needing improvement”.
John Welch, Chief Executive of FGCH said – “FGCH has always listened to
the views of our residents and I am pleased that this is recognised in this
judgement. Providing the best possible outcomes our residents is why we
are here and this judgement provides feedback on how we can make
improvements in doing that. The judgement will give a framework for
measuring how well we achieve that”.