Rochdale Boroughwide Housing regains regulatory compliance after ‘intensive’ turnaround plan

The housing association that managed the home in which toddler Awaab Ishak was exposed to black mould has regained regulatory compliance after an “intensive” two-year engagement with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) has had its governance grading upgraded from the ‘G3’ grade it was handed in December 2022, to ‘G2’, meaning it now complies with the RSH’s governance and financial viability standards. It however still needs to improve some aspects of its governance arrangements to ensure continued compliance.

The 13,000-home’s landlords compliant ‘V2’ grade for viability is unchanged. 

In its regulatory judgement, RSH described its engagement with the landlord over the past two years as “intensive”.

It said RBH has completed a governance restructure and introduced a new customer services committee including tenant members, to oversee improvements to its repairs service. It has revised its rules to rebalance the roles of the group board and the representative body, giving “more clarity on the roles and responsibilities of each”.

RSH said RBH has reviewed and improved its approach to risk management and revised its strategic risk register to give the board more oversight of the key risks facing the business and the controls in place to manage them.

RSH said: “As a result of the governance improvements, RBH has an improved understanding of the condition of its homes and through the information it collects and holds on its homes, is delivering targeted damp and mould works and enhancing its approach to repairs and complaints.

“Further planned changes to RBH’s mechanisms for tenant engagement and improving the breadth of information it holds about the diverse needs of its tenants will continue to shape RBH’s service delivery and improve outcomes for tenants.”

It added RBH needs to continue to embed the improvements made to its risk management and internal controls framework, including further strengthening data quality across the organisation.

Two-year old Awaab Ishak died in December 2020 as a result of a severe respiratory condition. In 2022 a coroner ruled this was caused by prolonged exposure to black mould in his home on RBH’s Freehold Estate.

Since then RBH has brought in a new board, new chief executive and new senior management team.

>>See also: ‘We will never lose sight of what happened’ - Rochdale Boroughwide Housing CEO Amanda Newton on addressing failures after a tragic death

Amanda Newton, chief executive of RBH, said: “We have spent the last two years focusing back on our core role as a provider of safe, warm homes that our customers are proud to live in.

“The whole team has had an unwavering focus on making genuine improvements that are felt by our customers in their homes and communities.”

In other judgements today, four landlords each got the highest possible gradings for consumer regulation, governance and viability. They are Cross Keys Homes, Live West Homes, Thirteen Group and Midland Heart.

Together Housing was awarded a ‘C2’ for consumer regulation, ‘G1’ for governance and ‘V2’ for viability.

Places for People was awarded the highest possible ratings for consumer regulation and governance (‘C1’ and G1’) while retaining its ‘V2’ grade for viability See full table below.

Latest regulatory judgements