During the year a review of agreed risk tolerance levels was completed and applied to the refreshed Business Strategy.
Understanding the extent to which the Board is willing to take, or not take risks has a direct impact on how agreed ambitions are embarked on and risk management applied.
The overall approach to risk is stewarded through the Risk Management and Assurance Framework, which will now be refreshed to align with changes to the Business Strategy.
The Group Audit & Risk Committee continues to support the approach to risk management. Amongst other tasks the Committee regularly reviews the Group Strategic Risk Register, agrees the internal audit plan based on risk factors and considers related reporting; the oversight role that Committee now holds for complaint monitoring fully embedded in its programme of work.
A separate task for the Committee is to consider and agree stress scenarios against which the 30-year financial business plan is tested.
When considering which scenarios to apply, English Rural’s Group Strategic Risk Register is referred to alongside the Sector Risk Profile produced annually by the Regulator of Social Housing.
The value of testing in this way is to understand what deteriorating impact risks would have, the timeframe for these crystallising and what mitigation measures can be applied.
