Housing Associations

Housing associations are a frequent target for corporate fraud. The threat can be from within or external. Our experience has enabled us to help governance and assurance teams prevent fraud and in house finance and legal respond to fraud. How can we help you?

Fighting fraud for Housing Associations

The Regulator of Social Housing (the “Regulator”) has set out its reporting requirement for fraud in regulating the Standards, in particular Governance and Financial Viability. The Regulator requires registered providers that own more than a thousand units to report annually on fraud losses.¹

The Regulator is clear that it “has an interest in ensuring that the opportunity and scope for fraudulent activity in the social housing sector is minimised and that a registered provider’s response is appropriate and robust. A significant fraud may impact on a registered provider’s ability to meet the governance and financial viability standard for example where it reveals weaknesses in internal control systems.”

Numerous types of corporate fraud have been identified within this sector, with the most common types being payroll, procurement, cybercrime, fraud within the finance function, development fraud and estates and maintenance fraud.

If you want support on how to ensure you are compliant and how to respond if you suspect fraud or simply want to chat to us about what risks look like for the sector, please contact.

0121 796 4020

hello@tenetlaw.co.uk

¹ Regulator of Social Housing: NROSH + Fraud Reporting – Guidance for Registered Providers

Our expertise

Our experience in the sector is demonstrated by those who trust us. We bring our financial crime and fraud knowledge from a wide range of sectors to housing associations and our work in the sector has proved valuable when acting solely for registered providers to help them prevent or respond to fraud.

Examples of our wider credentials are:

Being the only specialist fraud law firm to contribute and advise on content to the National Housing Association’s (“NHF”) book on countering fraud.
Regular speaker at the NHF governance and finance conferences.
Financial crime consultant firm for Gallaghers, the leading insurance broker where we help their clients conduct ‘fraud audits’ and provide specialist fraud prevention training.
Key contributor to the Fraud Advisory Panel’s Tackling Fraud in Social Housing publication.

Worked with various learning & development teams to deliver fraud prevention training including from the G15.
Advised numerous housing associations on responding corporate fraud investigations, often employee fraud and cybercrime related issues.
Providing external whistleblowing support services to maintain independence from panel law firm providers and for the registered provider.

Key to any registered provider’s counter fraud and fraud response plan is knowing how to identify the risks their own organisation is at risk from and how to respond with the Regulator in mind and often having to consider wider issues such as safeguarding and reputation.

We know from our experience the impact on registered providers can be:

Financial damage
Reputational damage
Loss of moral / reduction of productivity

Re-training
Police and regulatory repercussions
Damage to relationship with funders

As Safe as Houses – Newsletter

As Safe as Houses is our dedicated newsletter for the housing sector, combining our expertise and insights and offering practical steps to support your fraud prevention strategy, reduce exposure to fraud and helping you meet regulatory objectives.

Subscribe here and receive the newsletter direct to your inbox and if you have any questions or feedback on any of the articles please get in touch.