The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published a Regulatory Notice (RN) for Sovereign Housing Association, which operates in the south of England. Sovereign owned or managed over 60,000 homes as at 31 March 2021. In its most recent Regulatory Judgement, published in June 2021, Sovereign was graded G1 for Governance and V1 for Financial Viability. The RN says that the RSH is considering the implications of its findings for Sovereign’s Governance grading.
Sovereign made a self-referral to the RSH in relation to potential incomplete data about communal areas. The RSH has subsequently concluded that Sovereign has failed to meet statutory health and safety requirements in a number of areas:
- For around 2,000 of its blocks, Sovereign did not know if a fire risk assessment (FRA) was needed and so was unable to provide assurance that all properties requiring an FRA had one in place
- Also for around 2,000 blocks, Sovereign did not know if an electrical installation condition report was required or if they had been previously expected and
- An asbestos survey had never been conducted on several hundred communal areas, whilst a similar number of communal areas had been surveyed but not included in the re-inspection programme.
The RSH found Sovereign to be in breach of the Home Standard and that as a consequence there was the potential for serious detriment to tenants.
All of the RJs, RNs and GUR listings published by the RSH can be viewed on the RSH’s website here.