The Regulator will engage with 56 registered social landlords (RSLs) and 20 local authority landlords over the course of the year - five more RSLs and one more local authority than last year.

It will have high engagement with seven RSLs and medium engagement with 49 RSLs. It will also engage with 20 local authority landlords, with a higher level of scrutiny in four of these.

Helen Shaw, assistant director (finance and risk), said: “Landlords are increasingly complex businesses working in a challenging economic climate. And more RSLs are planning to build new homes at a faster rate than in recent years to meet the Government’s target of 50,000 new affordable homes by 2021.

“In this environment, strong governance, including effective understanding and control of risk and strong business planning, is more important than ever.

“We are engaging with more landlords this year primarily to seek assurance on a range of governance and financial health issues. Homelessness also continues to be a priority for us and is the main reason for our engagement with local authorities.”

The focus of the Regulator’s annual risk assessment is to promote good service outcomes, effective governance and sustainable financial health of landlords to protect the interests of tenants and people who are homeless.

The Regulator has published regulation plans which describe the engagement it will have with each RSL. The Regulation plans and details of the engagement with local authorities are available on its website.