ESG Report

Structure and governance

C25. Is the housing provider registered with a regulator of social housing?

Yes

C26. What is the most recent viability and governance regulatory grading?

G1/V1 grading granted on 29 June 2022. G1/V1 is the highest available grading, and the judgement was again confirmed in a January 2023 stability check.

C27. Which Code of Governance does the housing provider follow, if any?

The National Housing Federation Code of Governance 2020.

C28. Is the housing provider Not-For-Profit?

Yes

C29. Explain how the housing provider’s board manages organisational risk

We reported last year that we had commissioned external consultants Campbell Tickell to carry out our three-yearly external governance review which informed our governance and risk action plan moving into 2022. The review found that we had a strong risk management framework, closely linked to our governance structures.

Our auditors have since looked at risk management as part of our 22/23 internal audit programme and returned a ‘substantial’ assurance rating which is the highest rating available.

Our Group Audit and Risk Committee (GARC) is an important part of our governance structure and a compulsory requirement of our bond financing regulation. GARC oversees the risk management framework, scrutinises the risk register, manages our internal audit programme and reports assurances to Group Board. Committee members have a range of skills which cover the varying elements of strategic risk and it’s a requirement that:

the majority of GARC members are independent
at least one Audit Committee member has competence in accounting and/or auditing
and members have competence in the social housing sector.

GARC and our board receive detailed strategic risk reports on a quarterly basis, including risks that may be escalating or need a ‘closer watch’. Specialists’ scrutiny is vital in ensuring that we identify, quantify, monitor and control risk. Our committees each have responsibility for overseeing specific risks:

Group Customer Committee - oversees landlord health and safety and consumer regulation risks
Group Development Committee - oversees risks associated with our development programme, decarbonisation and asset management
Group Remuneration, Nomination and People Committee - oversees our people and organisational development risks as well as employee health and safety
Byker Community Trust Committee – oversees risks associated with the Byker Estate and community

These Committees carry out deep dives into the nature of the risk before providing assurances to GARC and the board. In addition to the formal Committees above we have also established a Treasury Task and Finish Group, made up of non-executive board members constituted on an ‘as and when’ basis to manage treasury and associated financial/ refinancing risks.

We recently amended the group audit policy to enable us to commission specific pieces of individual assurance work, so for example, in 2021, we requested an assurance from Savills on rent compliance, providing added guarantees to the board, the Regulator of Social Housing and investors.

Our centralised risk management system, known as STORM (strategic, tactical and operational risk management), helps us to manage the diversity of risk associated with our business. All teams have access to STORM in order to maintain their operational risk registers, while the Governance and Risk Team monitor and maintain the system and take a partnering approach to working with teams. STORM enables us to consolidate data and risk scores from across all our risk registers in one place and improve our response, seeing which risks are escalating and which are stable.

C30. Has the housing provider been subject to any adverse regulatory findings in the last 12 months (e.g. data protection breaches, bribery, money laundering, HSE breaches or notices) - that resulted in enforcement or other equivalent action?

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