*Closes 04th December*
Introduction from the Chair
Dear Candidate,
Thank you for your interest in these vacancies on the RSH Board.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is responsible for the regulation of around 1,400 social housing landlords (often known as housing associations) and 200 local authorities who provide affordable homes. Together those 1,600 organisations provide a home to over four million households in England. The importance of safe, secure, affordable housing has been underlined like never before in recent years, including by the tragedy at Grenfell Tower. There is also a clear need to provide more social housing to meet the needs of future tenants. Social housing landlords can only provide good quality, secure housing and services if they are well governed and financially viable, able to withstand a range of financial pressures in delivery of their strategic objectives.
The RSH has successfully delivered highly effective regulation of Registered Providers of social housing for many years. Our purpose is to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes that meet a wide range of needs.
Until 1 April 2024, our regulation largely focused on ensuring the housing associations we regulate are well governed and financially viable – to maintain lender confidence, protect social housing assets and the tenants who live in those homes. With the introduction of key changes made by the Social Housing Regulation Act, we now also undertake proactive regulation of our updated consumer standards for both Housing Associations and Local Authority social landlords. Our challenge now is to successfully deliver and embed integrated, holistic regulation, maintaining our strong track record of economic regulation (HAs), and driving all landlords to improve services and the quality of homes for tenants. That challenge makes the board of the RSH an exciting place to be in the coming years.
You will play a key role in supporting and holding the executive to account in ensuring the social housing sector remains viable and able to deliver good quality services to tenants, whilst making sure it can continue to actively develop new homes to address housing need across the country.
I would like to encourage you to consider applying to join the board of the Regulator at this exciting and challenging time. Our role is an important one and our board is essential in establishing and taking forward the strategic aims and objectives of the organisation, consistent with its fundamental objectives, bringing a range of financial, housing, regulation and consumer expertise and experience. The Board roles and skills we are currently seeking to recruit are set out in the accompanying job descriptions. We are a diverse board and hope to receive applications from a wide range of individuals.
Full details of the roles and responsibilities are set out in this document, and I very much hope you will decide to apply.
Appointment description
We hope to recruit up to five general housing non-executive members, and at least one non-executive member with specific finance expertise.
The role of the Board is to:
- Support the Chair to provide strategic leadership consistent with the Regulator’s statutory objectives and functions;
- In line with Managing Public Money and other guidance, support and challenge the Accounting Officer (AO), in particular by providing governance oversight;
- Guide and support the senior Executive team in directing the business of the Regulator with a view to delivering the fundamental objectives of the Regulator over the short and long term;
- Provide a strategic non-executive function (as distinct from an executive management function); and
- Help ensure that the Regulator acts in a way that is efficient, effective and economic.
The Board takes decisions on matters such as:
- Maintaining and developing the regulatory framework – to keep pace with changing sector risks and to ensure an approach that can withstand emerging challenges;
- Regulatory standards, strategy on the use of registration powers for both non-profit and profit-making organisations;
- Strategy on enforcement and intervention;
- The use of financial and economic analysis, for example on the risk profile of the sector; and
- Delegation of regulatory functions.
Regulator of Social Housing (RSH)
Number of vacancies x 5
Time commitment x 24 day(s) per annum
Remuneration x £11000 per annum
Length of term x 3 years
Organisation description
The Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is seeking to appoint Board Members of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The Board will help guide and oversee the delivery of the organisation’s updated fundamental objectives, as the Regulator embeds the changes which came into force on 1 April 2024, while meeting the economic objectives (governance and viability) for private social landlords (principally Housing Associations) at a time of on-going financial pressures. We are open to applicants with a wide range of skills and backgrounds.
This Government is committed to improving the quality of social housing and services to tenants whilst ensuring that the sector remains viable and well governed, able to invest in its existing stock and to deliver much needed new affordable homes. This will be an exciting and challenging time to join the organisation as it seeks to drive landlords to improve where that is needed to deliver the outcomes of the economic and consumer standards which apply.
The Regulator is one of MHCLG’s key arm’s length bodies, ensuring that providers are well-run, financially viable and able to deliver the homes that are needed, and that existing and new tenants have landlords that provide homes that are safe and deliver a good service.
The Sector and the Regulator is currently operating within a challenging economic environment. These challenges and financial pressures are set to continue and ensuring the financial stability of the sector and overseeing the response of landlords to on-going financial pressures will continue to be crucial for the Regulator. As an economic regulator overseeing a sector with access to over £130bn of private finance the regulation and understanding of the sector is key in building market confidence and identifying financial issues before they arise.
The Regulator of Social Housing’s role is key in regulating a sector delivering services to the 4 million households who live in social housing. Social housing accounts for 17% of households in England and social landlords (mainly housing associations) are on average responsible for over 20% of all new housing delivery in England in any given year.
The role of the Board of the Regulator is a challenging and important one, to ensure the organisation continues to deliver in challenging times, whilst ensuring that it can respond and evolve in relation to future policy changes.
Regulation of appointment
This post is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For more information, please refer to the Commissioner’s website
Person specification
Essential criteria
General Housing Non-Executive Director:
- Senior level executive experience of the range of operations of a social housing provider and an understanding of the social housing sector – including experience of driving positive outcomes for the organisation and for tenants, as well as an ability to articulate clearly the sector’s drivers and operating model;
- Experience of Director-level senior management and governance, including operating at a senior level in a large and/or complex organisation, with experience of working with or on a Board, and senior level experience of working with, or within, organisations that interface with government;
- Ability to make decisions based on complex financial products and models;
- Experience of a sector which needs to balance its economic and commercial drivers, protection of regulated assets, improvement in customer service and quality of homes and delivery of new homes;
- An understanding of good corporate governance and the importance of constructive challenge and the ability to contribute to effective oversight of all aspects of the RSH’s role and remit;
- An understanding of the principles of risk-based, outcome-focused regulation and a clear commitment to the Regulator of Social Housing’s role in regulating registered providers of social housing to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality that meet a range of needs.
- An understanding of the social impact of social housing and the challenges of providing services across a wide range of geographies and diverse client groups
Finance Non-Executive Director:
- Experience of Director-level senior management and working with or on a Board, including operating at a senior level in a large and/or complex organisation working with, or within, organisations that interface with government;
- Ability to make decisions based on complex financial products and models and a proven ability to identify and tackle financial and other risks, acting independently as appropriate;
- Senior level knowledge and experience of the capital markets and structured products (including key market participants such as insurers, annuity funds etc.), bank finance and related products, and a demonstrable understanding of the risks involved.
- Knowledge of the social housing sector and the potential impacts of economic and policy changes;
- An understanding of good corporate governance and importance of constructive challenge, and the ability to contribute to effective oversight of all aspects of the RSH’s role and remit;
- Understanding of the principles of risk-based, outcome- focused regulation and a clear commitment to the Regulator of Social Housing’s role in regulating registered providers of social housing to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality that meet a range of needs.
Desirable criteria
General Housing Non-Executive Director:
- Previous Non-Executive experience in a regulator or regulated body;
- Experience of managing an organisation through change.
Finance Non-Executive Director:
- Experience of other regulatory regimes;
- The ability to advise and constructively challenge the executive on different funding models, corporate structures and sources of finance.
- An understanding of the social impact of social housing and the challenges of providing services across a wide range of geographies and diverse client groups
- Experience of being on the board of a registered provider
How to apply
In order to apply you will need to create an account or sign in.
Once you are logged into your account, click on ‘apply for this role’ and follow the on-screen instructions. To apply, all candidates are required to provide:
- a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- a supporting statement. Please specify in your statement for which role (Finance or Generalist) you would like to be considered.
- equality information
- information relating to any outside interests or reputational issues
We will ask you to check and confirm your personal details to ensure your application is accurate.
You will also have the opportunity to make a reasonable adjustment request or apply under the disability confident scheme before you submit your application.
The Advisory Assessment Panel reserves the right to only consider applications that contain all of the elements listed above, and that arrive before the published deadline for applications.
