{"id":509399,"date":"2026-06-20T09:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509399\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T09:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:44:12","slug":"housing-body-given-e10-5m-a-year-by-state-found-non-compliant-with-rules-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509399\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing body given \u20ac10.5m a year by State found \u2018non-compliant\u2019 with rules \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A housing<\/a> body which receives annual funding of some \u20ac10.5 million from the Government<\/a> and local authorities has been found by regulators to be \u201cnon-compliant\u201d with official rules.<\/p>\n

The conclusions about Circle Voluntary Housing Association<\/a> were handed down by the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA), the supervisor of groups such as Circle that receive public funds to provide affordable housing to tenants.<\/p>\n

Circle, whose assets had a \u20ac376.6 million book valuation in 2024, owns or manages more than 2,600 homes in 16 local authority areas. The organisation provides housing for almost 5,400 people and had debts of \u20ac329.8 million at the end of 2024, the last year for which figures are publicly available. <\/p>\n

In a short report on Friday, the AHBRA said a statutory assessment of Circle between November 2023 and September 2025 found it be \u201cnon-compliant working towards compliance\u201d with regulatory guidelines for approved housing bodies (AHBs). <\/p>\n

Such conclusions mean Circle is not meeting one or more regulatory standards \u201cbut has demonstrated or provided evidence that there are satisfactory measures in hand or proposed to be taken to reach compliance\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAHBRA will engage with the AHB at agreed intervals to ensure areas of non-compliance are being addressed and a reassessment will follow,\u201d said the regulator\u2019s findings on Circle. <\/p>\n

The result reflects slippage in Circle regulatory standards over two years. In a similar AHBRA report in May 2024, Circle was found to be \u201ccompliant with improvements\u201d with the same guidelines.<\/p>\n

The new AHBRA assessment found Circle was \u201cnon-compliant working towards compliance\u201d on three grounds: standards of governance, financial standards and standards of property and asset management.<\/p>\n

The regulator declined to elaborate on such findings, which were set out in a same bullet-point format it uses for the results of all statutory assessments it carries out. <\/p>\n

\u201cProgress meetings will take place in advance of a formal reassessment,\u201d the regulator said, adding that Circle\u2019s tenancy management standards were \u201ccompliant with improvements\u201d. <\/p>\n

The housing body acknowledged the findings, saying it was committed to \u201ccomprehensively addressing the issues raised\u201d and was engaging constructively with stakeholders. <\/p>\n

\u201cCircle has already commenced a number of actions focused on strengthening governance, financial oversight, reporting, assurance and organisational effectiveness. We expect to complete this plan within six months,\u201d Circle said. <\/p>\n

\u201cImportantly, we would like to confirm that there is no impact on our tenants, tenancy security, homes or day-to-day housing services. All tenancy and housing services continue to operate as normal and supporting tenants and communities remains Circle\u2019s highest priority.\u201d <\/p>\n

It added: \u201cWe are working with focus and discipline to ensure the organisation completes this process stronger, more resilient and fully compliant with regulatory standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new conclusions in relation to Circle are one level better than a more serious finding that the AHBRA can hand down to non-compliant AHBs. <\/p>\n

The regulator\u2019s office can issue a \u201cnon-compliant statutory action required\u201d finding in cases where standards are not met \u201cand there is no evidence or insufficient evidence\u201d that the housing body is working towards compliance. However, that was not the case in relation to Circle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A housing body which receives annual funding of some \u20ac10.5 million from the Government and local authorities has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,217557,3662,61,60],"class_list":["post-509399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-circle-voluntary-housing-association","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}