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COLIN FRASER ON Redacted Information
Committee of Management
Minutes of Meeting – 17th December 2025
Present: Colin Fraser (Chair)
Lynn Jameson (Vice-Chair)
Jim Hemphill
Morag Orr
Alan Lamont
Amanda Aitchison
Elizabeth Stewart
Liz Robertson
George Thomson
Cheryl Miller
In attendance: Larke Adger (CEO)
Guests: Jennifer Queripel (Governance Consultant)
1. APOLOGIES
David Mills (COO) – annual leave
2. MOTION TO APPROVE MINUTES, 19th November and 10th December 2025
The Minutes of the meeting held on 19th November and 10th December 2025 were approved by Committee.
• AL Proposed / GT Seconded / Committee unanimously approved 19th November
• JH Proposed/ ES Seconded / Committee unanimously approved 10th December
3. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
There were no matters arising from the minutes.
4. DECLARATIONS or NOTES OF INTEREST
Jennifer Queripel declared her interest in Item 15
5. GUESTS, VISITORS, OBSERVERS
Jennifer Queripel (Governance Consultant) – Item 19
6. CASH IN BANK, INFLATION & INTEREST RATES
All cash balances across the 4 x WGHC bank accounts were presented by the CEO and a summary total provided, which stood at £1,093,391. This was an increase of £68.6K from the figure reported at the November meeting.
Inflation was reported at 3.6% (3.8% in the previous month) and interest rates were held at 4.00% (4.00% in the previous month).
• Committee noted the report.
7. Payment of Corporation Tax
The CEO confirmed WGHC had paid its corporation tax liability of £813.58 to HMRC, before the due date of 1st January 2026 (it was paid on 1st October 2025). £12,288 was received in interest during the financial year ending 2025 and £8,006 was deducted in accordance with qualifying charitable donations, leaving a balance of £813.58 to be paid.
For assurance, Committee were informed that WGHC’s tax computation is and CT600 submission were carried out by CT, on WGHC’s behalf.
• Committee noted the report.
8. GOVERNANCE, RISK, COMPLIANCE, HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT
The CEO presented the governance, compliance, health and safety report to Committee.
As accepted practice and to give Committee assurance, the COO also reported:
FOISA / EIR Requests since last meeting = 1 (Academic Researcher seeking statistics in relation to our damp and mould reports: the COO responded & answered full the same working day)
Subject Access Requests since last meeting = NIL
Information Data Breaches since last meeting = NIL
Open Notifiable Events with SHR = Two (31183 / 31437) (NE 31359 was closed by SHR as at 10th November 2025, although a monthly update of the Fire Safety Action Plan will continue to be provided to Committee).
There were no health and safety issues reported since the last Meeting (November 2025).
• Committee noted the report
9. MEMBERSHIP & USE OF THE COMPANY SEAL
The CEO reported that since the last meeting, there has been:
2 new memberships:
Membership No. 814
Date of Commencement: 20th November 2025 Sole Tenancy
Membership No. 815
Date of Commencement: 27th November 2025 Sole Tenancy
0 cessation of memberships.
• Committee noted the report
11. ROLLING ACTIONS ITEM LIST
2 ‘rolling actions’ remain:
1) Publish 2026-27 Component Replacement Programme
2) Adoption and Implementation of a Dementia Framework Committee were all provided with a copy of the CIH Dementia Framework, explaining that it was not simply a case of adopting a framework, but that staff will be required to develop policies and procedures, together with a monitoring and review system. Committee were advised that given the other priorities of the organisation at present (cladding, fire safety action plan, governance action plan, etc) that this work would not realistically commence until later in 2026-27.
The CEO advised Committee that both items were operational and moving forward in the new financial year, Committee will be presented with a quarterly scorecard in relation to the strategic objectives, replacing the operational items rolling actions list.
JH asked about the flexibility of the Dementia Framework and if this would allow WGHC to be able to choose what was most suitable and proportionate for WGHC as a smaller, community based landlord. The CEO confirmed that this was correct.
• Committee noted the report
11. NEW HOUSING (SCOTLAND) ACT 2025 M& AWAAB’S LAW IN SCOTLAND
The CEO presented a brief summary of the key pieces of the legislation which will affect the social rented sector, but are yet to come into effect, including the introduction of the Awaab’s Law in Scotland.
AL asked the effect on WGHC of the forthcoming changes to the EPC certificate validity reducing from 10 years to 5 years. The CEO advised that WGHC had already met with our contractor who delivers this service and confirmed there would be a small increase in price to the more detailed EPC and we were gearing up for this change to come into effect on 31st October 2026.
• Committee noted the report
12. INTERNAL AUDIT JANUARY 2026
The COO advised committee that this year’s Internal Audit was taking place the week beginning 12th January covering the areas of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning and Rent Arrears. Wbg will be conducting the audit and present their report at the March 2026 Committee.
• Committee noted the report
13. THE AUTUMN BUDGET 2025
The COO advised committee of the main budget items which may impact the housing sector including the removal of the two-child benefit cap, the uplift in the National Minimum Wage (noting that WGHC is a Living Wage Scotland employer) and the numerous reserved policies regarding income tax thresholds.
• Committee noted the report
14. BUDGET SETTING EXPLAINED (2026-27)
Prior to the approval of the 2026-27 budget and 30 year financial plans at the January 2026 meeting, the CEO walked through the budget setting exercise undertaken by the CEO & COO
AL asked questions about the forecasted surplus generated and if that carries forward into the next financial year The CEO explained that this was correct and ties in with the forecasted carried forward cash balance at the year end.
• Committee noted the report
15. NOTIFIABLE EVENT 31437 – COMMITTEE GOVERNANCE
The CEO advised Committee of the need to create an Action Plan, listing each recommendation with implementation dates; a copy of which, one approved, has been requested by the Scottish Housing Regulator.
The CEO walked through each recommendation with Committee, ensuring she understood each of the requirements, as agreed by Committee, to ensure accurate actions were written into the Action Plan for implementation.
• Committee confirmed each of the recommendations and actions to the CEO including that two training sessions were to be undertaken on the Role of the Chair; 1 with the Governance Consultant and the other through SHARE;
• Committee asked the CEO to create and send out Doodle Polls for training sessions as the easiest method to establish suitable convenient dates;
• Committee confirmed that they wished the Governance Consultant to conduct the Board Room Etiquette training, a “wash up” training session following the August 2025 Meeting;
• Committee confirmed they wished the Governance Consultant to conduct the review of the Annual Appraisal Policy, including the effectiveness assessment of those members servings 9 years +, alongside the creation of a list of personal attributes for the role of Chair – and present to Committee for their approval.
16. NOTIFIABLE EVENT 31183 – CLADDING FINANCE & FUNDING ISSUES
The CEO provided an update to Committee regarding the open notifiable event with the SHR, no. 31183. This relates to the cladding issues at the FQ Flats, from the financial perspective to WGHC. The CEO further informed Committee details regarding SG funding, working in partnership with WHE and an update from the SHR regarding WGHC finances; details of
which included the proposed Development Agent Agreement between WHE and WGHC and the requirement for each party to also commission their own independent advisor (for WGHC proposed to be Diamond & Co as the author of our Single Building Assessment and remediation recommendations)
The CEO advised Committee that she has been invited to sit on the Scottish Government’s Social Housing Cladding and Oversight Assurance Group. The remit of the group is a national collaborative effort to facilitate the learning cladding remediation of buildings in the sector; the group reports to the Cabinet Secretary.
• Committee noted the report
17. NOTIFIABLE EVENT 31359 – TENANT HEALTH & SAFETY
The COO provided an update to Committee regarding the open notifiable event with the SHR, no. 31359. This relates to the recent Single Building Assessment undertaken at the FQ flats and the cladding issues from a tenant health and safety perspective.
An update of the Fire Action Safety Plan (Appendix 1) (Version 9.0) plan was discussed with Committee, and they were further advised that £23k had been spent carrying out appropriate fire door remediation and fire stop compartmentalisation works in the Forthquarter building.
GT noted from the Action Plan, that the Dry Riser checks were due biannually and asked if they had been booked, as they were now due again. The CEO confirmed this was the case and she would check they had been booked and report back at the next meeting.
• Committee noted the updated fire action plan (version 9.0)
• Committee noted the report
18. SMOKE ALARM UPGRADE TENDERS (FORTHQUARTER)
The CEO presented the procurement route taken to invite tenders for the upgrade smoke alarm works at the Forthquarter. The process was administered by the Scottish Procurement Alliance using their Fire Safety Framework. A mini competition was conducted out, with only 2 tenders being received. The weighting was 50% price and 50% quality.
The winning bid came from Openview Security coming in with an overall score of 83.63% and a cost of £129,194. The other tenderer scored 75.71% overall. The CEO advised that following Committee approval, she would be required to submit the details of our preferred bidder to Scottish Government, in accordance with the conditions of their Grant Offer Letter.
• Committee unanimously approved that the tender should be awarded to Openview Security
19. COMMITTEE GOVERNANCE UPDATES AND TRAINING
The CEO confirmed that we now have a corporate membership with SHARE for all WGHC governing body members. Each member were presented with their individualised Membership Certificate, having previously received their email link to their online account. Committee were given a list of all the benefits of their SHARE membership.
Having corporate membership with SHARE, the CEO advised she was able to save nearly £4k in training costs alone for Committee, over the coming year. In regard to
arranging and agreeing suitable training dates from Committee’s Training Plan, the CEO was requested to send out Doodle Poll surveys.
Jennifer Queripel (Governance Consultant) presented the following to Committee:
• New SFHA guidance on the Induction of Committee Members JQ put to Committee that WGHC should now revise their own policy accordingly. Committee Member (ES) agreed to meet with JQ to work on the policy.
• SHR Risk Priorities for 2026-27
• Further training requirements regarding the August Committee, specifically regarding governance challenges within the Boardroom.
• Committee agreed:
- that ES would work with JQ on the revision of WGHC’s Induction Policy
- that the CEO is to send out Doodle Poll surveys to arrange the SHARE training sessions and regarding a Saturday morning session with the Governance Consultant in regard to “wash up” training session following the August Committee
Committee noted the remainder of the report
20. AOCB
Committee were reminded that the 1st of their 3 Financial Training Workshops was being held in the Boardroom on 28th January 2026 - from 5-6pm; with the Committee Meeting starting at 6.15pm.
• No other AOCB items were raised
25. DATE OF NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING
It was proposed the next meeting be held on Wednesday 28th January at 18.15hrs (Doors open at 17.45hrs)
• Committee approved the next Committee Meeting to be held on Wednesday 28th January 2026 at 18.15hrs (following the Financial Training Workshop finishing at 6pm).
Signed: Redacted Information Chair Date: 28th January 2026
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