Dealing with risk

Risk Management is not about avoiding or eliminating risk, it’s about understanding what the risks are, what can cause those risks to occur, their likely impact, and how we can manage or mitigate this. When we understand the risks we face we can make properly informed decisions and find efficiencies through avoiding ‘surprises’.

Principal risks and uncertainties

Our goal is for risk management to be:

Embedded in our culture, a positive organisational culture in which people embrace their roles and responsibilities
An integral part of all organisational processes, and not a stand-alone activity performed in isolation
Explicitly addressing uncertainty, identifying the nature of uncertainty and how we can address it
Based on the best available information, drawing on data, expert judgement and stakeholder feedback to inform evidence-based decisions
Part of decision-making, helping staff to make informed choices, prioritise activities and identify the most effective and efficient course of action
Dynamic and responsive to change, responding swiftly to events, changes in the environmental context and the results of monitoring and reviewing activities
Applied consistently across our business, to facilitate comparisons and prioritisation
Applied with clarity, clear delineation of roles and responsibilities for regular review and challenge of risk management.

We use an objectives-led methodology to ensure we focus on the areas of greatest value / potential impact to the organisation and the communities it serves.

We are constantly monitoring our risk environment as it is subject to continuous change. From the recent change in Government through to the ever-developing regulatory obligations from a building safety perspective. Current focuses include changes in the macroeconomic environment, recruitment markets, cyber security, pan-Southern Housing integration, changing political landscape, delivery of our legal and regulatory obligations, and focus on provision of the highest quality services and homes to our residents.

In order to provide assurance over the effectiveness of our risk management response, we receive assessments from a range of sources inside and outside the business. One of the primary sources is from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The RSH provide an effective regime of oversight to those within the social housing sector and perform, in line with that responsibility, a regulatory assessment of registered providers.

Our most recent assessment of the business, performed by the RSH in August 2024, gave us a Governance rating of 1 – the highest possible score achievable, and the assessment under which our risk management activities and structure fall.

Many in the sector have felt the recent pressures on their financial plans. Whether it is uncertainty around their rental revenue streams, through to increasing costs related to meeting new legal and regulatory standards, many of those in the sector have reduced the pressures on their plans by driving down the corresponding level of development in their businesses. That development, itself, plagued by additional risk factors such as Brexit leaving a void of manual labour, inflationary pressures increasing costs, and contractor insolvency are all primary risk factors for organisations with a development strategy.