Correspondence

2023 CEO letter re data collection (small providers) - accessible version

Published 16 March 2023

Applies to England

Dear Chief Executive

2023/24 RSH data requirements

I wanted to write to you to let you know about the arrangements for data collection in the coming year. Timely and accurate data submission is a cornerstone of the co-regulatory settlement and we rely on the information you supply us to ensure proportionate and risk-based regulation. I would therefore be grateful if this letter can be passed onto the appropriate person within your organisation.

From April 2023, we will be commencing our round of data collection from private registered providers (‘providers’) via the NROSH+ website

All providers registered with us (including those who own no stock), are required to complete and submit a Statistical Data Return (SDR) to NROSH+ by 31 May 2023.

It is essential that the updated templates and guidance notes are reviewed before the completion of the surveys on NROSH+. Additionally, we remind you that it is your responsibility to correctly categorise and record stock accurately according to the latest applicable legislation and to ensure you understand and apply the rent rules correctly.

We ask that you pay particular attention to the classification of units to ensure they align with the 2020 rent standard and that you give particular focus to your reporting of decent homes non-compliance to ensure that the submitted figures across all questions are an accurate reflection of your stock’s performance against the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard.

We would also like to take this opportunity to remind providers that any properties covered by the Decent Homes Standard which contain one or more hazards assessed as serious (Category 1) under Housing Health and Safety Rating System which have not been rectified are non-compliant with the Decent Homes Standard by default.

Please submit your SDR return as early as possible within the survey period, allowing sufficient time to raise any questions you have regarding your submission. We aim to respond to all queries within five working days. Please note that queries made to us within five working days of a survey deadline may not receive a response until after the deadline has passed. This may result in submissions which do not meet the survey deadline. Extensions to the deadline will not be granted due to late queries.

As in previous years we will publish a list of all late or missing returns for 2023 when the SDR data is published in the Autumn. Failure to provide accurate and timely data may be reflected in our judgement of a provider’s compliance with the regulatory standards.

During the checking of submissions, we may contact some providers to discuss their data returns before signing them off for further analysis. Subsequently, we may contact a minority of providers where there are any regulatory issues arising from this analysis of the validated data.

Please note that the SDR data collection is distinct from other returns you may be required to make, for example to the Housing Ombudsman or to the CORE survey funded by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

A Disposal Notification Form is also available on the NROSH+ site for the collection of information about disposals made by providers. Providers are required to notify us about disposals it has made in line with the Direction on disposal notification. The Direction and supporting guidance sets out the details of what must be notified and the type of information that must be provided.

NROSH+ closure and update

In order to prepare for the 2023/24 survey period, the NROSH+ system will be offline from 18:00 on Friday 17 March until launch on Monday 3 April. During this time, you should not access the site and should make alternative provision to access documents and templates should you require these during this period.

We will notify all users by email when NROSH+ launches for the 2023 collections.

Subject to final testing and quality assurance processes we intend to update the NROSH+ system during this downtime. This revised system should deliver a number of improvements requested by providers, whilst retaining a similarity to the current system. We have endeavoured to ensure that the layout and processes remain aligned to the existing application, however, there are some key changes which users will need to familiarise themselves with assuming the updated NROSH+ system launches. These include:

• Changes to the way in which survey data are imported to and exported from the system;
• Contact details being updated during the submission process and not within the surveys themselves; and
• Validations being viewable onscreen as well as the traditional exports.

Please note that we strongly recommend providers download PDF and/or Excel versions of their previous data returns as these will not be included in the revised system. Guidance on how to download previous data returns is available on the current NROSH+ application.

New guidance materials will be available on the website when it launches, and we will notify users of training sessions in early April. As with most IT systems, there will be a continuous development plan over the coming years, allowing the introduction of smaller changes, or to resolve smaller items of frustration. We welcome feedback on the revised system, and hope you will be patient as we resolve any issues we encounter.

We will keep users updated as to the system launch through their current user account details.

User accounts

Details on how to reactivate user accounts on the system once it relaunches will be sent to all current NROSH+ users. It is imperative they reactivate their user accounts to ensure that your organisation continues to receive notifications from the system.

Organisational and contact details

The NROSH+ website requires your organisation to enter and maintain a suite of organisational and contact details. It is the responsibility of each individual provider to ensure that this contact information is kept updated and accurate throughout the year. This is important because we use this information to contact your organisation on regulatory matters.

It is very important that the organisational and contact details in NROSH+ are kept accurate and up to date by your officers. If they are not:

(a) your organisation may not receive important information on statutory consultations and/ or regulatory requirements; and/ or

(b) correspondence (which may include information about the provider’s business or regulatory compliance) may be sent to the wrong individuals (who in some cases may no longer work for the provider).

We take our duties in relation to data protection seriously, but to do this we rely on providers updating their contact information in a timely fashion. Please see our privacy policy on the NROSH+ site for more details.

If you have any queries, please refer to the guidance and FAQs on the NROSH+ website (from Monday 3 April 2023). If further assistance is required you can contact the referrals and regulatory enquiries team NROSHenquiries@rsh.gov.uk who will assist you with your query.

Yours faithfully

Will Perry
Director of Strategy