Standards Assessment is a statutory evaluation conducted by AHBRA to determine whether an AHB complies with the Regulatory Standards namely, Governance, Financial, Property & Asset Management and Tenancy Management. AHBRA’s assessment programme is conducted on a continuous basis throughout the year.
AHBRA operates a risk-based assessment framework and, when selecting AHBs for assessment, considers several factors, including:
- Risk profile of the AHB, including size and future growth plans.
- Notifiable events and/or concerns received.
- Information provided in the annual monitoring programme.
- Random sampling of AHBs.
- Information received from other sources.
AHBRA issues a notice to each AHB that has been selected for assessment. The notice outlines the information that the AHB must provide.
After reviewing and evaluating the AHB information, AHBRA issue its findings and recommendations which includes an overall regulatory outcome as well as a regulatory outcome by Standard. The overall outcome for an AHB is based on the lowest individual Standard result. This ensures that if an AHB is not meeting expectations in one area, it is reflected in its overall compliance outcome.
There are four potential outcomes from a Standards Assessment as set out in the figure below:
AHBRA’s actions following a Standards Assessment are guided by the outcome as follows:
– Compliant outcomes– AHBRA will decide on what follow-up (if any), is required on an individual basis.
– Compliant with Improvements outcomes– AHBRA will decide on any follow-up on an individual basis and may require an AHB to provide updates on its implementation of any recommendations made as part of the Standards Assessment.
– Non-compliant Working Towards Compliance outcomes– an AHB receives this outcome when it is not meeting one or more of the Standards but has demonstrated or provided evidence that there are satisfactory measures in hand or proposed to be taken to reach compliance.
Where an AHB receives this regulatory outcome, it will be required to proactively engage with AHBRA to ensure the areas of non-compliance are being adequately addressed within an agreed timeframe. No formal compliance plan is required unless further issues emerge. Through engagement with the AHB, AHBRA will establish a timeline for a follow-up Standards Assessment to re-evaluate the AHB’s progress towards full compliance. This outcome does NOT result in an entry on the AHB Register under Part 4 of the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019 (“the Act”).
– Non-compliant Statutory Action Required outcomes- AHBRA has found that the AHB does not meet one or more of the Standards and there is no evidence or insufficient evidence of the AHB working towards compliance. AHBRA will engage further with the AHB to determine the appropriate regulatory or statutory action. Typically, AHBRA’s initial regulatory action is to require the AHB to submit a compliance plan under Part 4 of the Act setting out corrective measures taken or proposed to be taken by the AHB to comply with the relevant Standard.
When a compliance plan is approved by AHBRA, an entry will be made on the AHB Register under Part 4 of the Act which will include summary details of the measures taken, or proposed to be taken, by the AHB to address the areas of non-compliance identified during the Standards Assessment.
If an AHB does not submit a compliance plan or if AHBRA rejects a compliance plan, AHBRA will issue a notice of non-compliance under Part 4 of the Act and enter the details in the AHB Register. AHBRA may reject a compliance plan, for example, where it considers that it does not adequately address all necessary remedial actions.
Below is a list of AHBs assessed by AHBRA along with their overall regulatory outcomes and outcomes by individual Standard. Please note, the Standard Assessments have been carried out at a point in time based on the information available to AHBRA and the outcomes should not be relied upon as indicating that AHBs are compliant or otherwise at a future point in time.