Rapport Housing and Care has been issued with a regulatory notice for breaching the governance and financial viability standard.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) said it had found a “series of failures” in Rapport’s governance and financial management, which had led to “significant liquidity issues”.

The regulator said Rapport had not carried out “robust stress testing on its business plan, failed to properly consider the implications of taking on new liabilities, and did not plan appropriately for the impact this would have on its business and regulatory compliance”.

RSH said the failures demonstrated a “lack of effective oversight by Rapport’s board”.

It said it had used its powers to appoint interim board members to provide “additional skills and capacity to address these failings”.

Harold Brown, senior assistant director for investigations and enforcement, said: “This is a fundamental failure of governance by Rapport, including ineffective management of its financial risks which led to significant liquidity issues. Rapport needs to address these issues urgently and we are working with the provider intensively to ensure that it does so.

“As part of this approach we have appointed statutory officers to strengthen Rapport’s board, to help provide the capacity needed to support the management of its financial position, ensure that tenants remain safe, and address weaknesses in its governance.”

Rapport Housing and Care chief executive, Leon Steer, said: “Following the Regulator of Social Housing’s initial engagement with us in January, they advised that they would provide an updated regulatory notice in the spring, this has now been published on their website.

“The regulatory notice reflects the recent challenges we have encountered as a housing and care provider, which have made the past three years incredibly difficult. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic, subsequent staffing crisis and cost-of-living pressures have contributed to significant pressures on the care industry as a whole and particularly on us as a non-profit provider, which is largely dependent on local authority funding.  

“Our residents’ wellbeing and safety remains our highest priority, and we will continue to work closely with the Regulator of Social Housing to address the issues raised and improve our position.

“We would like to express our gratitude to our staff and volunteers, who continue to work tirelessly to support our residents despite difficult circumstances.”