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Two social landlords deregistered by regulator for persistent breach of standards
Two small landlords have been deregistered for persistently breaching the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH)’s standards.
St Andrews Community Housing Association, based in Hertfordshire, and Kinsman Housing, based in London, have been struck from the register of social housing providers.
Deregistered providers may be required to dispose of their Section 106 properties to another registered provider. They are no longer eligible for grant funding from Homes England. Any grant funding they had spent on new homes becomes repayable to the government.
Tenants of deregistered providers lose various rights and protections. For example, deregistered providers are not obliged to be part of the Housing Ombudsman service.
Deregistration is "very consequential and not something we do lightly," Jonathan Walters, deputy chief executive of RSH, told Inside Housing.
"When it comes to deregistration cases, you’re looking at organisations that have failed to take adequate action to address their ongoing non-compliance and meet our registration criteria."
He added: "There are things that could flow from a deregistration, including a provider’s relationship with local authorities."
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Both landlords have been in “serious and persistent breach” of the regulator’s standards, the RSH said.
Each own and manage social homes under arrangements entered into after registration which give material controls and all beneficial interest to a third party. For this reason, the RSH said it has had “ongoing and serious concerns” about each landlord’s financial viability and “weak governance arrangements”.
The regulator published enforcement notices for the two organisations in February 2023, urging them to tackle their failures. However, the RSH said that both providers had failed to take adequate action to address their ongoing non-compliance.
St Andrews owns four social homes and Kinsman has 31 properties.
Both were linked to claims about homes intended for social housing being sold on the open market in 2018.
The regulator launched an investigation into the organisations that year after it emerged they were connected to Pathfinder, a housing association accused by councils of using “sham transactions” to violate agreements to provide affordable housing.
Kinsman was later found non-compliant for selling homes meant for social housing at full market value.
St Andrews was ruled non-compliant after failing to act with due diligence in entering into its property acquisitions and activities.
A few months later, Kinsman was also found in breach of the consumer standard over a failure to address fire safety issues for nearly a year after being made aware of them.
The RSH has now concluded that St Andrews and Kinsman do not have adequate control over their social housing assets, “putting them at undue risk, which means they are unable to sustain their financial viability” as required.
Mr Walters added: “Being a registered provider of social housing is an important and valuable role that comes with responsibilities and obligations. Maintaining the register is crucial for us to deliver our fundamental objectives, and all registered providers must meet the registration criteria.
“St Andrews and Kinsman have failed to do this, and they have persistently breached our standards. As a result we have decided to remove each provider from the register of social housing providers.”
Speaking when the RSH first announced plans to deregister the providers, a spokesperson for Westminster City Council said: “Kinsman Housing provides a very small number of homes to people living in the borough of Westminster and we are in discussions to support tenants living in those properties in case of any changes in relation to the housing association.”
St Andrews and Kinsman have been contacted for comment.
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