Transparency data

RSH ARAC minutes - 20 April 2026 (accessible version)

Updated 30 July 2026

Applies to England

on Monday 20 April 2026 at 09:00 - MSTeams meeting

8 - Remote and virtual participation

8.1 - Any member may validly participate in a meeting through the medium of conference telephone, video conferencing or similar form of communication equipment, provided that all persons participating in the meeting are able to hear and speak to each other throughout such meeting, or relevant part thereof.  A member so participating shall be deemed to be present in person at the meeting and shall accordingly be counted in a quorum and entitled to vote.

8.2 - A meeting shall be deemed to take place where the largest group of those members participating is assembled or, if there is no group which is larger than any other group, where the Chair of the meeting is.

Members
John Liver (JL)	Chair
David Cassidy (DC)
Kalpesh Brahmbhatt (KB)
In attendance
Shayne Coulson (SHC)	MHCLG Policy Lead: Affordable Housing, Regulation and Investment
Kate Dodsworth (KD)	Chief of Regulatory Engagement
James Dunbar (JD)	Head of Finance
Lisa Harvey (LH)	Audit Manager, Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA)
James McGraw (JMG)	Senior Audit Manager, National Audit Office (NAO)
Fiona MacGregor (FM)	Chief Executive and Accounting Officer
Jenny Obee (JO)	Engagement Lead, Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA)
Susan Clark (SC)	Director - Financial Audit, National Audit Office (NAO)
Ellie Stamp (ES)
Emma Tarran (ERT)	Senior Assistant Director Head of Legal and Company Secretary
Jonathan Walters (JW)	Deputy Chief Executive
John O’Mahony (JOM)	Assistant Director Corporate Services
Sarah Corbridge (SAC)	Head of IT and Digital Services
Minutes
Amber Gaskell (AG)
Workshop attendance
Robert Light (RL)	Board Member (for workshops)
Chan Kataria (CKa)	Board Member (for workshops)

1	Welcome and apologies
01/04/26	The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. There were apologies from the Director of Finance and Corporate Services, Richard Peden.
2	Declarations of Interest
02/04/26	There were no new declarations of interest.
3	Minutes of the last meeting
03/04/26	The minutes from 19 January 2026 were APPROVED.
4	Matters Arising
04/04/26	The matters arising were discussed and the matters arising document will be updated for the next meeting in July. - 10/01: This will be carried over to July’s meeting. - 20/01: ACTION COMPLETED - 04/10: ACTION COMPLETED - 07/10: ACTION COMPLETED - 13/07: This will be carried over to July meeting.
05/04/26	- 11/04: This has been on the forward planner since 2025. At the last audit there was a discussion as agreed, but this has not been closed yet as no summary of actions have been presented. SC and JD to pick this up and bring a paper to a future meeting summarising. SC and JD to prepare paper on NAO actions for a future meeting.
5	Forward Planner
06/04/26	Members noted the forward planner and the amendments that have been made. - The LARP session that was due to be delivered today has been moved to July’s meeting. - The Provider Failure session has been moved to October. - Work is being done in relation to sector financial resilience in light of current economic and political events, and we plan to bring some of this thinking to a future ARAC meeting.
6	GIAA Progress report
07/04/26	JO introduced the report. She raised that there has been a delay on receiving the management action plan for HR actions so that won’t be covered at this committee. She gave the option to share this by correspondence or bring it to the next meeting. JL agreed this can go to the next meeting. ACTION to put this on agenda for the next ARAC.
08/04/26	JO reported all 5 audits planned for this year had been completed by the end of March; 3 of these have been finalised, and 2 are due to be finalised by the end of this week and will be brought to the next committee.
09/04/26	JO confirmed the I&E audit received a substantial assurance rating. DC wanted to give thanks to the team for their hard work despite pressures in that area. JW will pass this message on.
10/04/26	It has been agreed by GIAA, in collaboration with RSH to keep the number of audits the same for the year ahead. The only thing that has changed is an amended timeline on the audit of the major financial failures work. Some further internal audit planning work will be discussed with the new CEO once appointed.
11/04/26	KB queried the timing for the people plan audit.  LH advised the scoping meeting hasn’t yet taken place and when they will agree the optimal timing.
13/04/26	In response to a question from JL, JW confirmed that work is taking place to develop an updated internal assurance map.
14/04/26	JL asked if we are expecting anything to need to change as a result of the  the Employment Rights Act. JW confirmed HR have been doing briefings on this and more is to come. There will be implications, but some of this will be mitigated for RSH due to our existing terms and conditions.
15/04/26	LH gave a brief overview of the HR audit. Once this report is finalised, it will be shared with the committee.
7	NAO update
16/04/26	SC introduced herself, as she has recently picked up the financial audits for MHCLG and its ALBs, including RSH.
17/04/26	SC advised that the NAO are in the early stages of scoping a study on the quality of social housing. Meetings have taken place to allow for RSH input, and the anticipation is that RSH will be involved in this study. FM raised that this update should probably come to Board as it is of interest for all Board members. JW agreed to give monthly updates at Board. There was a question about the terms of reference for the work overall, SC advised that Helen has had a standard briefing so she will ask her to reach out.
18/04/26	The committee raised concerns about the further increase in fees; Susan advised the costs incurred have gone up significantly despite efficiencies being made. JL asked if we could have a number for this year’s audit in October/November so we know how much is likely to be spent. NAO
8	NAO Letter of Understanding
20/04/26	Members noted the NAO letter of understanding.  SC informed us this was largely the same as previous years, however there is a new reference to the use of AI based technology confirming that NAO do not use publicly available LLMs.
9	Finance Governance report (including Procurement)
21/04/26	JD introduced the paper and highlighted some items for further discussion.
23/04/26	A revised Commercial Functional Standard was published on 1 April 2026. RSH Finance will assess RSH against the revised Standard during 2026/27 to confirm continued compliance with the mandatory elements and with relevant advisory elements, applied proportionately to RSH’s size, procurement profile and risk. JD explained that although we are compliant with all mandatory elements, some of the broader elements are designed for much larger organisations and were not appropriate for us. Other ALBs that are a similar size to us have the same approach.  Committee members asked if this could be justified if we are questioned on it. JD advised that we could, but that a paper will be taken to Exec to explain why we don’t assess the optional elements and justify the decision making behind this. JD
10	Digital Update
24/04/26	JW introduced Amanda Hall’s paper providing an update on digital. SAC joined to answer any questions.
26/04/26	The committee agreed they would like confirmation from both RSH and MHCLG that the relationship is working. SHC from MHCLG advised there are now regular catch ups in the diary with Amanda and things are improving.  Agreed that Programme update and Relationship between MHCLG and RSH to be a standard agenda item going forward. ACTION for AG to add this to the forward planner.
11	Annual Fraud Report
27/04/26	JD took us through the Annual Fraud report, highlighting some key points. Since moving to MHCLG’s digital system we have benefited from their cyber awareness testing. A significant number of our staff were compromised by a recent test (35%). This is as a positive from the digital change as it also means training was delivered to those staff members.
28/04/26	We now have an MOU with GIAA to access their specialist staff support if we do have any fraud cases. The MOU means we will not need to go through any lengthy procurement exercises when we need immediate support for fraud.
12	Internal Audit Actions
30/04/26	JOM joined the meeting to go through the Internal Audit Actions. Advised there has been some work done on this to update it and close any outstanding actions. There are some items which have been delayed due to ongoing work on the corporate centre plan which will be picked up towards the end of the financial year. JL asked for a clarification on the process that actions go through before closure. JOM advised there is regular engagement with GIAA and they go through this together. They have tried in this paper to capture honestly where things are closed and move some as it is relating to Framework 28 and the Corporate Centre Plan. Going forward agreed that an extra line in the papers will be useful to show if something has been moved to Framework 28.
13	Any other business
31/04/26	None were raised.  JL thanked everyone for their input to the discussions and closed the formal meeting.  External attendees left the meeting.
	Date of next meeting: 20 July 2026
32/04/26	Chan and Robert joined the meeting for the workshop.  Workshop session followed on: - Risk Register and Risk Appetite Statements