Deregistered housing association reinstated by regulator after High Court appeal

Following the appeal, Dawson was then reassessed by the RSH, where it was deemed there was evidence that Dawson was providing social housing and it determined that Dawson was correctly registered as a registered provider.

Inside Housing has seen a letter sent to the landlord from the RSH last month in which it confirmed that Dawson was a social housing provider and would be permanently reinstated to the list and the note about its deregistration would be removed. This is expected to be changed in this week’s update of the current registered providers list.

When asked for more details on the why the decision was changed, the regulator said that it could not comment on individual cases.

According to Companies House, Dawson was launched in Norwich in May 2017 and became a for-profit landlord in September 2018.

In January last year, the association changed hands, with current chief executive Alex Bass becoming the person with significant control and the office address changed to Gloucestershire.

When Mr Bass took over, it was a non-trading association with no staff or stock. Since then it has grown its stock and now provides specialist supported housing for vulnerable adults, exempt accommodation and general needs housing.

Dawson provides this through its own stock and by leasing some of the homes it manages. It provides intensive housing management on some homes, as well as uses service providers in other situations.

The association is one of the providers used by newly launched real estate investment trust (REIT) Home REIT. According to Home REIT’s latest accounts, Dawson is its second biggest landlord and is responsible for 9.5% of all of its rental exposure and with a contracted rent of more than £1.7m.

This accounts for around 300 properties, but it also has a number of properties in which Dawson has an under-lease with one of the other community interest companies Home REIT uses.

Home REIT launched last year with the aim of providing low-cost, fit-for-purpose accommodation to homeless people at risk, including victims of domestic violence, people leaving prison or foster care, and those suffering from mental health problems, drug and alcohol addiction.

The company acquired 711 properties within the past year alone, which were valued at £328m.

Dawson converted from a being a company with limited shares to become a community benefit society, with this process being completed at the start of September.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a community benefit society is business set up to benefit the wider community and reinvests profits back into the community. These are regulated by the FCA.