Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Standard & Poor’s indication that it will downgrade half the housing associations it rates if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The Government’s policy remains to leave the EU with a deal.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has not said that it will automatically downgrade housing associations in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal. The sensitivity analysis it published on 3 December was based on its own simulation of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, but we expect that its actual ratings will depend on how housing associations are affected (and how they respond) in practice. It is important to note that, even in S&P’s ‘no deal’ simulation, housing association ratings remain concentrated in its ‘A’ category.