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governance

Over recent years, the housing association sector has moved from the relatively low-risk grant funded sector to an environment characterised by private financing, revenue contracts for care and support, complex regeneration schemes, innovation and diversification.  Against this background, there have been several spectacular governance failures in the corporate sector and a number of reports on good practice to reduce the risk of such events in the future.

Governance is now a highly important focus point for associations and a key element of the Housing Corporation's "traffic-light" based assessment system.  As with other facets of the sector, we have developed a detailed knowledge of the governance requirements of housing associations and the risks to them.  Central to this knowledge was our work with the Housing Corporation to develop a risk based regulatory system for the sector, including governance risks.

On the basis of this we can provide you with an assessment of your current governance arrangements to identify whether they comply with current standards and best practice.  We can help you to ensure that your systems of delegation and reporting are clear, comprehensive and supported by suitable reporting and accountability arrangements.

We believe that effective governance arrangements can be a major factor in enabling an association to thrive and meet agreed goals.  Coupled with this, an "A" grade assessment from the Housing Corporation of your governance arrangements will reduce their assessment of the level of risk your association poses to their objectives and lead to a reduction in the amount of regulation you receive.  We believe that, given an enlightened approach, a target of an "A" grade HCA assessment for governance should be achievable by many associations.