Now part of The Housing Finance Corporation, we have a long track record in supporting housing associations, lenders and regulatory bodies on risk management and strategy formulation.
Please note that this is a temporary website, while our permanent site is being put together.
HRS provides specialist consultancy, research and analytical services, working with housing associations and regulators on risk management, strategic planning and control.
We specialise in the housing association sector and believe that risk management should support the sector to deliver a greater social contribution, particularly in relation to housing supply. We aim to increase our customers’ capacity to help people in housing need by focussing on the achievement of strategic objectives, reducing unexpected losses and being prepared to handle adverse scenarios.
We have a great deal of experience in the social housing world, having been active in the sector since 1996. Throughout this period, we have continued to innovate, developing tools and techniques to help organisations understand their strengths and weaknesses, maximise their financial capacity, and manage their risks more effectively.
In August 2024, HRS was acquired by The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC).
We operate mainly on the basis of a membership service, through which our customers share the costs of our research and analysis on an equitable basis, while choosing an appropriate level of consultancy support to provide assurance on, and drive improvements to, the quality of their risk management and business planning systems.
Members pay an annual fee, which consists of a retainer plus a charge for an agreed number of consultancy hours. Through the retainer, which is based on the turnover of each organisation (with upper and lower limits), members contribute towards the costs of our research and analysis. The results of these activities are provided to members through:
Also, our members' app provides access to our standard sector risks, risk assessments for a typical housing association, and a huge repository of best practice controls.
Managing Director
John Hargreaves has been Managing Director of Hargreaves Risk and Strategy (HRS) since 1996. His previous experience was in finance and planning, having been Financial Controller of National Freight (Now DHL), Head of Group Financial Systems and a member of the scenarios team at Shell, Finance Director at London Underground, and Corporate Finance Director (Planning) at Barclays Bank. Between 1990 and 2007, he also ran an MSc level Strategic Management course at London School of Economics. John is a Chartered Accountant with a mathematics degree from Cambridge University.
John's main current interest is in increasing the impact of good risk management in the housing association sector by improving the relationship between associations' risk management and their strategy development. He believes that associations' impact can be maximised by ensuring that they always maintain an appropriate balance between the risk they are taking and their capacity to take risk safely.
Managing Consultant
Chris has worked as Managing Consultant for HRS since 2004. He looks after a number of our clients, as well as researching and writing all of our publications for members. He developed an app to give members easy access to our sector risk data, including the best practice controls, which he updates on the basis of the advice given in each HRS Review, among other sources.
Chris developed the Credit Assessment Model used by HRS to evaluate the balance between risk exposure and risk capacity in the financial plans of our customers. He also supports a software tool to enable clients to document their key risks, their underlying drivers, the arrangements in place to manage them, and assurance that these controls are in place and effective.
Practice Manager
Sharron joined HRS as Office Manager in 2012 to support both the Managing Director and Managing Consultant. With her keen focus on building long-term client relationships, she plays an essential role in ensuring our consultancy services are delivered efficiently and meet client deadlines.
Sharron also oversees membership subscriptions and renewals, coordinates client meetings, and manages the distribution of key HRS publications, such as the HRS Review, Horizons, and Scenarios.
Before joining HRS, Sharron served as Office Manager and PA at the NIHR Patient Safety and Service Quality Research Centre at King's College London. She has also gained experience through her work within fintech, visual media, stock imagery, and newspaper publishing.
HRS provides a combination of information and consultancy services. These enable us to meet the specific needs of our customers while sharing the costs of research to maximise value for money.
This document is designed to ensure that members' key management is kept up to date regarding sector developments. The HRS Review is produced monthly, following a quarterly cycle, to ensure that each of the following areas is covered in depth every three months:
The HRS team looks at key elements of an association's risk management arrangements, evaluating how these compare with best practice. This will typically encompass:
