Regulation
Our regulation work is managed by Simon Goulding, Head of Compliance. Southern Housing Group is regulated by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA)and our services are inspected by the Audit Commission. Both bodies are government sponsored agencies.
The TSA has statutory powers that allow it to intervene in a housing association if it judges it to be failing. Each year the Group is required to provide information to the TSA that enables it to make regulatory judgements about the quality of our governance, financial viability, management and development capability. Each year we submit:
- A Regulatory and Statistical Return (RSR) which contains key performance information about Southern Housing Group Limited and Southern Home Ownership Limited
- A Self Assessment Compliance Statement (SACS) which details our strengths and weaknesses and covers areas where we have or intend to improve our operations
- Financial information including our annual audited accounts, the auditor’s management letter and a 30 year business model
This information is used by the TSA to make a risk assessment of the Group and devise a “Regulatory Plan”. We are currently assessed as low risk and the Regulatory Plan for Southern Housing Group usually consists of routine meetings with our Regulation Account Manager and Financial Analyst. The TSA can also ask us to investigate allegations or complaints made and monitor our progress on implementing any inspection improvement plans.
Each year the TSA issues a public assessment of the regulatory status of the Group. The assessment has traffic lights for Viability, Governance, Management and Development. Our assessment has four green traffic lights and gives the Group a clean bill of health. The Authority also produces a private Annual Viability Review (AVR) which gives their opinion about the financial status of the Group. The current AVR clearly indicates that the Group is in good financial health and we agree with that assessment.
The TSA is required by the Government to ensure that conflicts of interest (defined by Schedule 1 of the Housing Act 1996) are properly managed. We take great care to ensure that conflicts are managed.