Why we are engaging with Glasgow West Housing Association Ltd (Glasgow West)
We are engaging with Glasgow West about governance and tenant and resident safety.
In February 2021 we received information that led us to review whether Glasgow West was compliant with the Regulatory Standards of Governance and Financial Management (the Regulatory Standards). This followed Glasgow West notifying us of a potentially serious tenant and resident safety matter relating to high level glass on public walkways within some of its high rise buildings. Subsequently it also identified a potential fire safety issue in the public walkways in these buildings. Since then we have been engaging with Glasgow West about both the immediate and long-term steps it is taking to address these issues and to ensure that it is complying with the Regulatory Standards as well as all tenant and resident safety requirements.
In November 2021 we completed our review of Glasgow West’s Regulatory Status and were satisfied that Glasgow West had provided us with sufficient assurance about how it was managing these issues and its compliance with Regulatory Standards.
Glasgow West has put in place a number of temporary safety measures to mitigate the risks to tenants and others and has developed a plan for delivering a long-term solution to these matters. Glasgow West was also proactive in its decision to commission an independent assessment of its compliance with its other health and safety obligations. It has developed an action plan to implement further improvements identified as a result of this work in relation to legionella and asbestos management. The action plan has been progressed with a number of improvement actions implemented. However a number of actions remain to be completed and the tenant and resident safety matters will not be fully addressed until late 2022.
Following our engagement, Glasgow West also commissioned an independent review into its handling of the tenant and resident safety notifiable event. Glasgow West has already taken steps to make a number of improvements in its governance and has developed an action plan to implement the remaining recommendations from the independent review.
We will continue to engage with Glasgow West as it progresses its plans for a long term solution to the tenant and resident safety matter as well as implementing its improvement action plans.
What Glasgow West must do
Glasgow West must:
- provide us with monthly updates on progress with the implementation of its comprehensive immediate and long-term plans to address the problems identified with the glass walkways and fire safety issues;
- inform us of any material delay or impact on its ability to address this tenant and resident safety matter;
- update us on the implementation of the remaining actions relating to its governance and improvements to legionella and asbestos management; and
- inform us when it considers the tenant and resident safety matter to be fully resolved and provide us with the assurance we require to confirm that our Regulatory Standards and all other health and safety obligations are met.
What we will do
We will:
- engage with Glasgow West to monitor progress with its immediate and long-term actions to address the tenant and resident safety matter and to implement improvements in response to its governance and health and safety reviews;
- arrange to observe a governing body meeting and to provide feedback; and
- update our published engagement plan in light of any material change to our planned engagement with Glasgow West.
Regulatory returns
Glasgow West must provide us with the following annual regulatory returns and alert us to notifiable events as appropriate:
- Annual Assurance Statement;
- audited financial statements and external auditor’s management letter;
- loan portfolio return;
- five year financial projections; and
- Annual Return on the Charter.
It should also notify us of any material changes to its Annual Assurance Statement, and any tenant and resident safety matter which has been reported to or is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive or reports from regulatory or statutory authorities or insurance providers, relating to safety concerns.