The Almshouse Association regularly posts a news summary of the latest Policy and Governance legislation that could impact / requires action from our member charities, with links to further information where applicable. Please find below our latest summary:

Government

  • Support for energy bills announced – Prime Minister Liz Truss has outlined the support that the government will provide to help with the spiralling costs of energy.

    The Energy Price Guarantee is a package of measures which includes:
    • Suspending green levies on energy bills
    • Capping household bills to ÂŁ2500 per year for the next two years
    • Providing the ÂŁ400 energy rebate
    • Equivalent support will be offered to those on heat networks
    • A fund will be established to support charities with their energy costs this winter, offering an equivalent guarantee for the next 6 months

More information can be found here.

  • Government announces support for non-domestic energy bills – The Government has now published details on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which will help those on non-domestic (business) tariffs this winter. This will include charities who provide energy to their residents.
    The support will initially be available from 1st October 2022 until 31st March 2023, with further support expected after this for the most vulnerable sectors.

    The scheme will be available to everyone on a non-domestic contract including:
    • businesses
    • voluntary sector organisations, such as charities
    • public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals and care homes
      who are:
    • on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 April 2022
    • signing new fixed price contracts
    • on deemed / out of contract or variable tariffs
    • on flexible purchase or similar contracts

The support will be applied to all bills by suppliers, and you will not need to apply for it to take effect.
– Our full article on the support can be found here.
– A more detailed breakdown of the support can be found on the government announcement here.

  • Response to Tenant Satisfaction Measures Consultation Published -The Regulator of Social Housing has published its response to its consultation on the introduction of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) for Registered Providers of Social Housing.

    The TSMs are a set of measures on which are aimed to reflect the performance of housing providers, included registered providers who are almshouses. Following the consultation some of the TSMs have been amended, but there will still be 22 data points covering measures gathered from residents and housing providers based upon levels of satisfaction, complaints, health & safety checks etc.

    For most almshouse charities who have less than 1,000 dwellings, there are provisions to collect this data every year or every two years. For those with over 1,000 dwellings, it will be an annual requirement.

The TSMs are due to come into effect on 1st April 2023. Full details on the response and supplementary information can be found here.

The Charity Commission

  • Protect your charity from fraud and cybercrime – The Charity Commission has published guidance on protecting charities from fraud and cybercrime ahead of Charity Fraud Awareness Week (17 – 21 October 2022).

Full guidance can be found here.

RECORD OF PREVIOUS 2021/22 Policy and Governance updates:

Posted 26 September 22