2024-03-31-annual-return - Rural Housing Association Ltd

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Rural Housing Association Ltd Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Rural Housing Association Ltd for the Year Ended 31 March 2024 &

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Rural Housing Association Limited (the ‘Association’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the Statement of Comprehensive Income, the Statement of Financial Position, the Statement of Changes in Equity, the Statement of Cash Flows and the related notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice)

In our opinion the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the Association’s affairs as at 31 March 2024, and of its income and expenditure for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
have been prepared in accordance with the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969, the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1992, the Registered Housing Association (Accounting Requirements) Order (Northern Ireland) 1993 and Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Association in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Board's use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Association's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Board with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our Auditor’s Report thereon. The Board are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other

information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements, or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the association and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Board Report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate accounting records have not been kept; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of the Board of Management and Auditor

As explained more fully in the Statement of Board of Management Responsibilities statement set out on page 5, the Board (who are also the trustees of the Association for the purposes of charity law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the board determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Board is responsible for assessing the Association’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Board either intends to liquidate the association or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditor’s Report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below.

Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material mis-statement in respect of irregularities including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:

We identified the laws and regulations applicable to the Association through discussions with management and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the sector;
We assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence.

We assessed the susceptibility of the Association’s financial statements to material mis-statement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by

Making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
Considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations and;
Performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships:
Tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions;
Assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates were indicative of potential bias;
Investigated the rationale behind any significant or unusual transactions.

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:

Agreeing financial statements disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
Reading the minutes of meetings to those charged with governance;
Enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims;
Reviewing correspondence with regulators and the Association’s legal advisors.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK), we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also:

Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Association’s internal control.
Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the Board.
Conclude on the appropriateness of the Board’s use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the Association’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our

conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the Association to cease to continue as a going concern.

Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation (ie. gives a true and fair view).

We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the FRC's website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditors/audit-assurance/auditor-s-responsibilities-for-the-audit-ofthe-f/description-of-the-auditor%E2%80%99s-responsibilities-for. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the Association’s members, as a body, in accordance with section 43 of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969, section 65 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, regulations made under section 66 of that Act (Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 and article 19 of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1992. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Association’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditor’s Report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Association and the Association’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Michael Barnett (Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of McAleer Jackson Ltd

Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors Church House 24 Dublin Road Omagh BT79 0AH

26 June 2024