Updated guidance on fees for RPs

Posted: 26/03/2021

On 21 February 2021, the Regulator of Social Housing (the Regulator) published updated guidance to its policy on fees for registered providers of social housing (RPs). The updated guidance follows a letter issued to RPs on 15 December 2020 confirming that the overall level of the Regulator’s income from fees would be held at the same level for 2021/22 as for 2020/21.

The letter acknowledges that the “fee freeze” recognises both the above inflation fee increase for 2020 and the resource pressures that RPs have been facing in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance confirms the following:

• there is an initial fixed fee of £2,500 for successful applications for initial registration (fees are not payable on registrations resulting from statutory mergers or conversions);
• the annual fee for small RPs (those with fewer than 1,000 social housing units) is a fixed fee of £300;
• the annual fee for all other RPs is based on the number of social housing units owned by the RP. For the 2021/22 financial year, this will be based on the number of units owned on 31 March 2020, as recorded in the Statistical Data Return, and will take into account any group or structural changes that have occurred since this date. The per-unit fee is £5.36 per social housing unit;
• for groups owning 1,000 social housing units or more where the parent is an RP, the annual fee should be set at group level rather than for each individual entity on the register. The numbers of units of each RP in the group are aggregated to determine a single fee. Where the group parent is unregistered, the fee is collected from each individual RP in the group;
• In group structures with an RP parent, where there are fewer than 1,000 units within the group, each RP is charged the single fixed-rate fee for small providers of £300; and
• RPs must pay the full cost of the annual fee for the year that they are on the register when they register or de-register (the Regulator would not double-charge if the deregistration results from a restructure or merger).

If you have any questions about the fee updates, get in touch with a member of the team.

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