Non-compliant Notting Hill Genesis says regulator has ‘agreed its action plan’ to improve

Non-compliant Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) has said the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has agreed its plan to improve its governance and services.

NHG, which was downgraded to a non-compliant ‘G3’ governance grade in November, said in a statement today that the RSH has agreed its “regulatory compliance action plan”. This is made up of 11 workstreams with outcomes that underpin the formal voluntary undertaking agreed by the regulator.

The RSH in a statement however did not comment on whether it has agreed the action plan, merely saying that it continues “to engage intensively with NHG as it works to address the issues that we found in our inspection.”

Patrick Franco, chief executive of NHG, said: “The speed with which we have put together this plan and the commitments we have made in it demonstrate our organisation’s appetite for change and I am proud of the team’s response.

“We are grateful for the collaborative approach taken by the regulatory team as we have developed the plan. They have offered useful guidance and constructive challenge throughout, and I am confident that we now have a pragmatic and achievable plan.”

NHG is seeking to improve its governance after being downgraded to a non-compliant ‘G3’ governance grade in November. A regulatory inspection found issues of concern with its business planning and risk and control frameworks that led to ‘poor outcomes’ for tenants.

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The Regulator of Social Housing’s judgement for NHG in November also found failures against the new consumer standards including a substantial backlog of overdue fire remediation actions, a lack of data on whether legal requirements had been met in a large number of third party managed buildings, a repairs backlog and a lack of accurate data with only around half of homes having had a survey in the last five years.

RSH said at the time NHG is taking steps to improve its approach but described the scale of improvement needed as “significant”

NHG has previously issued a lengthy statement outlining the work it is doing to improve a range of areas, including improving board skills, risk management framework and board oversight of health and safety. It is also working to improve its legal compliance of external managing agents, fire remediation actions, repairs and maintenance, its understanding of the condition of its homes and its listening to residents.