We’ve adopted the National Housing Federation (NHF) Code of Governance 2020 [pdf]. It’s designed to help us achieve the highest standards of governance and board excellence.
We’re accountable to our customers but we’re also accountable to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The Regulator’s role is to make sure we’re effectively governed, well-maintained and our business is financially secure. Our Board is required to make an annual compliance statement, confirming that CHP has complied with the Regulator’s Governance and Financial Viability Standard. This falls within the economic standards set by the Regulator, which also includes the Value for Money Standard and Rent Standard.
The regulatory framework for housing associations set by the RSH also requires us to meet the consumer standards which are made up of four standards.
Keep homes safe, decent and in a good state of repair.
Keep the wider area clean and safe, help tackle anti-social behavior and promote community wellbeing.
Let homes and manage tenancies in a fair, transparent and efficient way.
Understand and respond to the diverse needs of residents, provide choice and opportunities for involvement, and resolve complaints fairly and promptly.
Each year we carry out a self-assessment on the four standards to check that we’re still compliant. In any area where we’re not compliant, we work to make immediate improvement.
These are Governance and Financial Viability, Value for Money and Rent.
We’ve been awarded a grading of G1 for governance and a regrading of V2 for financial viability, following an in-depth assessment (IDA) from the RSH.
In awarding us the highest possible G1 grading we have demonstrated to the RSH that we’re well governed and in a strong position to continue delivering on our corporate strategic objectives.
Our V2 regrading recognises that we’re a growing business that has sound financial plans in place to deliver our business plan. It takes into account that we have an ambitious development programme to help meet housing need in the region and that we’ve set aside funds to invest in energy efficiency improvements as part of our strategy to become carbon Net Zero.
We’re committed to making our money work harder for our customers. We have a Value for Money Strategy that puts value for money at the heart of everything we do. We carefully manage the balance between how much we spend, the quality of service this will deliver and the difference this will make to our customers. You can find out more about our Value for Money Strategy and how much we save in our CHP Annual Report 2022-2023 and CHP Financial Statements 2022-2023.
Our shareholders form part of our governance framework. They must always act in the best interests of CHP and the benefit of the communities we serve.
Shareholders are invited to attend our Annual General Meetings to receive accounts and approve Rule changes. Shareholders also have some powers in relation to the appointment of Board members.
Risks are uncertain future events that could influence the achievement of an organisation’s strategic objectives. The impact is calculated considering a balance of the following areas: financial, legal / regulatory, growth, customers / communities, or reputation / trust. We have a Risk Management Framework that outlines our methodology for identifying potential risks relevant to us and sets out the strategy for dealing with them.
To complement this, we have an Assurance Framework which maps internal and external assurance within CHP which we use to demonstrate our defence against our risks.
