The regulator has downgraded a 2,120-home specialist housing association after a large batch of emails was deleted under a previous management team. Habinteg has been downgraded to a G2 rating by the Homes and Communities Agency because of governance concerns.The housing association manages supported housing for people with disabilities.
In November last year Habinteg’s new management team told the regulator it had discovered a large batch of emails had been deleted prior to them joining the organisation.
The regulator said Habinteg responded “promptly and appropriately” when the issue came to light and commissioned an independent investigation into the loss of the data and whether it could be recovered.
However, the review highlighted “significant weaknesses” in Habinteg’s processes and controls across a number of areas and the back-up system in place for storing emails “did not meet business requirements”.
It will be recruiting a new permanent chief executive. The board has developed and started to implement an action plan, formed a task and finish group to oversee the plan, and employed consultants to assess delivery.