Longhurst and Stonewater among 11 landlords with unchanged annual viability grades
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published its first set of annual stability check results for this year.
The checks look at the financial information landlords have submitted to the RSH, including their most recent business plans and annual accounts.
The English regulator then considers whether their current viability grade is consistent with this.
Cottsway Housing Association and Stonewater both had their existing V1 grades confirmed.
A V1 grade for financial viability means a landlord meets the regulator’s viability requirements and has the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse scenarios.
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Nicholas Harris, chief executive of Stonewater, said: “In what continue to be challenging times for housing providers, it’s good to let our colleagues, partners and customers know that we have retained these judgements from the regulator and continue to be an adaptable and reliable organisation.”
The other nine landlords to have their V2 grades confirmed were: Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, Empowering People Inspiring Communities, Fairhive Homes, Framework Housing Association, Hightown Housing Association, Housing Plus Group, Longhurst Group, Nehemiah United Churches Housing Association and Worthing Homes.
A V2 grade means the landlord has the financial capacity to deal with a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, but needs to manage material risks carefully to ensure it continues to meet the RSH’s viability requirements.
A V3 or V4 means a landlord does not meet these requirements.
These latest annual stability checks come after the English regulator told Inside Housing’s Regulation and Governance Conference last month that the social housing sector’s financial position is heading towards the same sort of space as the 2008 financial crisis.
Jonathan Walters, deputy chief executive at the RSH, said “we’re not there yet”, but there is “no doubt” of the significant financial pressures facing providers.
Mr Walters was speaking during a session that featured the regulators and the Housing Ombudsman discussing the multiple demands on spend that the sector is facing.
He referred to the RSH’s latest annual Sector Risk Profile as “25 pages of depression, doom and gloom”.
In it, the regulator reported that the cost of servicing debt exceeded net earnings across the sector for the first time since 2009.
The English regulator carries out stability checks on all housing associations and other private registered providers that own 1,000 or more homes.
The checks do not include local authorities because the RSH’s Governance and Financial Viability Standard does not apply to them.
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