Regulatory compliance
Regulatory Compliance
Newydd Housing Association and its parent Newydd Group (formally known as the Cadarn Housing Group) are both registered social landlords. Both operate as Co-operative & Community Benefit Societies on model rules; Newydd operates on a charitable form of rules while Newydd Group operates on non-charitable rules. Primary regulation of registered social landlords is the responsibility of the Welsh Government. Regulation is carried out in accordance with The Regulatory Framework for Housing Associations Registered in Wales.
Newydd Group also has two other subsidiary companies called Living Quarters (Lettings and Sales) Wales Ltd and Newydd Maintenance Ltd. These companies are not registered social landlords. Living Quarters (Lettings and Sales) Wales Ltd carries out market lettings and sales activity on behalf of the Group and Newydd Maintenance Ltd provides maintenance services to Newydd.
The Regulatory Framework
The Regulatory Framework provides a focus on continuous improvement and a clear Regulator’s judgement. There is a requirement for associations to provide an annual statement of compliance with the performance standards set by Welsh Government.
Regulatory focus will be on strategic risks and business viability issues as housing associations continue to respond to a changing and increasingly complex operating environment. There will be an increased focus on good governance, specifically on how the Board is assured that its primary responsibility of ensuring the effective running of the Association is fully and properly discharged.
The Regulatory Framework for Housing Associations can be found here.
The Regulator will make a judgement of each Association’s “capacity to improve”. This judgement will be reflected in annually published co-regulation statuses for governance (including service quality) and for financial viability.
The assessment of the organisation’s capacity to improve will be based on a series of judgement factors which assess the ability to effectively manage and improve the business.
The current status will be published in each Association’s annual Regulatory Judgement, our latest Regulatory Judgement (March 2023) can be found here.
Annual Statement of Compliance
The compliance statement is a statement by the Board if it is satisfied or assured it meets all of the Performance Standards or, if compliance cannot be fully evidenced, it will set out an explanation and a summary of actions it will take to improve compliance which the regulator will appraise.
Our latest compliance statement can be found here.
Code of Governance
The Group aims to exhibit high standards of governance and has adopted the Community Housing Cymru Code of Governance. Compliance is regularly reviewed and the Boards can confirm that they are in full compliance and will continue to review progress to ensure that compliance is continued.
The key elements to our approach to governance are as follows:
- Values based open and transparent decision making with high standards of probity
- Accountability to tenants and stakeholders through sharing of information and opportunities to challenge
- Clear and effective systems for delegation and control subject to scrutiny and audit
- Skilled and effective Board members subject to appraisal, succession planning and clear role descriptions
- Strong emphasis on improvement and value for money
The Board has also committed to increase the diversity of their membership by adopting the Chartered Institute of Housing leading diversity by 2020 challenge.
