[Sue Missin]

Sarah Jackson from DTP who has attended the Almshouse Consortium members meeting and West Midlands Regional meeting , has advised she is holding a webinar to provide advice on setting WMC The webinar which is free for all to join

Message from Sarah – Our next webinar on the Rent Standard and Rent Convergence is coming up on the 3 March 2026. It’s free to attend and runs for an hour between 12 and 1pm.
The link is https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4b14334a-cbf9-41c5-9f13-4bf1fd536ffe@717f539d-ccf4-4c0a-bdc5-24b06b3c12db

[Sue Missin]

Hello

The rent flexibility to offer the 5% uplift is covered in the Policy statement on rents for Registered Providers
There is also a 10% uplift that is offered too
This document also outlines that Almshouses had an exemption when rent deflation was introduced so the figure could increase year on year
There are consultants who are familiar with the rent modelling that can support getting this crucial aspect correct to achieve the rent standard
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/direction-on-the-rent-standard-from-1-april-2020/policy-statement-on-rents-for-social-housing

[Sue Missin]

From my experience most organisations need to ensure their Trustees feel fully informed from a Governance perspective and to be able to assess any areas of concern in the running of the Charity
There is also the new legislation for all housing providers on EPC C and Awaabs law etc coming into force where Trustees will need insight and taking on board the “good practice ” on Tenant satisfaction measure to demonstrate that customer data is being used for business planning etc

Basic KPI’s – rent/ WMC collection rates , void rates, staff retention, rent arrears, time taken for repairs to be undertaken, tenant complaint handling, homes achieving EPC C, etc are all usually included plus there are more and it is not dependent on size but on using the data to show where performance has to be improved.

May be a useful topic for a webinar to share ideas. Giving Trustees a snapshot on performance monitoring against KPI’s I am sure would help recruit and retain experienced Trustees

[Sue Missin]

On this website there is the Members Health Check provided
This was issued a few years ago.
Hopefully there are plans to update to include recent legislative changes for housing providers such as Awaabs law, Qualifications for employees, Renters Reform etc to give an up to date set of requirements for Trustees when undertaking their Governance role for the charity

[Sue Missin]

Hello

At the Lancashire Regional Meeting, Graeme Hughes came along to speak
They have many Almshouse Charity clients and talked practically about the current operating environment

Graeme Hughes

Partner, Head of Charities, Not-for-Profits and Social Enterprises

0151 600 3079
07834 621 509
graeme.hughes@brabners.com

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