Future Housing Group – Scheme Review

Background

Futures Housing Group has been providing affordable homes and supporting people across the East Midlands for over 15 years.

They are a not-for-profit organisation registered with the Regulator of Social Housing. They currently meet the regulator’s highest standards of G1/V1 (which are measures of the strength of our governance and finances).

They have more than 10,300 homes extending from Derbyshire down to the Daventry area and beyond. They have ambitious plans to invest over £190m in building new homes by 2024.

Approach

Futures Housing Group commissioned ARK to carry out a detailed Scheme Review. The main focus of the review was adherence to governance processes and the key aspects of the review are summarised here:

Scheme Inception – Review of the detailed assessment of the schemes against the Group’s procedures. Review and assessment of the approval route of the schemes including completion and follow up of any actions required from authorising bodies.
Scheme Delivery – Review and documentation of the controls put in place to monitor/oversee the scheme delivery. Assessment of the appropriateness of ongoing monitoring of the contractors including quality of provision, assurances obtained and continued viability.
Scheme Handover – Review and commentary on the controls at handover and final quality checks performed prior to letting.
Best Practice – At all stages assess the Group’s procedures against best practice and where appropriate make recommendations for improvement to the existing control framework/procedures.
Regulatory Standards Review – Review findings against the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, the Value for Money Standards and the Home Standard.

Outcome

The review was completed on time and within the agreed four-week deadline. The dedicated ARK team delivered a thorough 22-page document which covered detailed benchmarking with similar sized housing associations, reviews of approval processes and other relevant documents before concluding with our observations and recommendations. The report included clear recommendations with risk ratings. The report was well received by Futures Housing Group and presented to their Audit and Risk Committee in person by ARK.

Ian Skipp, Executive Director of Resources at Futures Housing Group said “The communications / report / presentations and ease of working with you have again all been excellent”.