Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Accepted
Paragraph: 99
Regulator must continuously improve understanding and scrutiny of evolving social housing financing models.
Recommendation
We are pleased that the Regulator has taken steps to ensure that it has the adequate skills and resources which are required for it to have an effective understanding and scrutiny of the new financing models emerging in the sector, particularly equity investment and for-profit registered providers. Nonetheless, for the Regulator The Finances and Sustainability of the Social Housing Sector 45 to properly understand the role of new financing models it will need to adopt a rigorous process of continuous improvement, including assessing whether its skills and resources remain adequate.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the need for continuous improvement, detailing current efforts in recruiting specialist staff, engaging advisors, and conducting internal audits, along with a planned 2024-25 review of knowledge and development for for-profit providers.
Paragraph Reference:
99
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
18. We agree with the committee that it is important we ensure that we can understand and scrutinise the for-profit part of the sector. To support this we have recruited staff with experience of banking, financial markets, consultancy, and corporate law/legal structures to for-profit providers and corporate finance in our regulatory engagement, strategy and legal teams and we train and develop our staff. We have regular engagement with advisors to the sector which enables us to keep abreast of the latest developments in the sector in relation to equity investment and new structures and models. 19. We use a variety of ways to keep our regulation under review including through our audit function. The Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) recently carried out an internal audit of our regulation of for-profits which received a substantial assurance rating. We have in our 2024–25 priorities a review of our current knowledge and future development of for-profit providers. As with all our internal audit activity this work was reported to our Audit and Risk Assurance Committee the minutes of which are published on our website.10 We also provide details on our performance in our annual report.