Banks and ratings agencies are holding urgent talks to assess the financial impact of governance problems at two of the country's largest housing associations.
Shaftesbury Housing Association and the Places for People Group were both put under Housing Corporation supervision last week.

Now ratings agency Standard and Poor's and the Council of Mortgage Lenders are discussing what the associations' woes mean for their finances and for lending to the rest of the sector.

S&P will review Shaftesbury's credit rating over the next two to three months; this is known as putting it on "credit watch" but does not necessarily mean its rating of A- will be lowered.

Places for People subsidiary North British Housing Association has a rating of A+ but S&P said it will not review this as it is satisfied NBH's troubles did not have financial implications.

Adele Archer, director in the public sector division of S&P, said: "We think this problem is specific to these two associations. We do not think it is a sector-wide issue."

Shaftesbury was put under supervision last Friday after critical performance reports from the corporation and the Audit Commission.

Source

Housing Today