One Housing Group (OHG) – 14,000-home housing association had its governance downgraded by the social housing regulator due to concerns over its “transparency and accountability” to a G2 grading, which means it is compliant with regulatory standards, but needs to improve.
In a regulatory judgement, the HCA said it had “insufficient assurance regarding the transparency and accountability of OHG’s governance arrangements”.“There are inconsistencies and gaps in the documenting of agreed governance arrangements and a risk that the board is not able to gain assurance that it is complying with its own governing documents,
The judgement was issued after the regulator carried out an (IDA) of the London-based organisation.
In other judgements , Flagship Housing Group and Orbit Group both had their governance rating upgraded to the maximum G1, while Red Kite Community Housing had its viability upgraded to V1.
In separate regulatory judgements, two housing associations – 7,000-home Wandle and 3,500-home Trident – had their viability downgraded to V2.
The HCA said Wandle’s development programme with homes for sale would leave it more exposed to the housing market. Its governance rating however was upgraded to a ‘G1’. Wandle said the viability downgrade had been triggered by “an increasingly challenging environment”.
The HCA said Trident’s significant supported housing stock left it exposed to government benefitchanges.