At the Regulator for Social Housing, we’re gearing up for the biggest transformation to social housing regulation for more than a decade.
The Social Housing Regulation Bill, which has nearly finished its journey through Parliament, will bring about significant changes for every social landlord including councils.
Councils need to get ready for this new, more active approach. Subject to legislation, we expect it to kick in from April 2024. What will new consumer regulation look like? What are the best ways to prepare? And what are the next steps?
First, a quick look at the current system. We already regulate councils, which need to comply with our existing consumer standards. And we’ve recently started regulating councils’ compliance with the rent standard, which has gone well so far.
But, crucially, our current consumer regulation is reactive. The Bill will shift us to a proactive approach. Now we can only investigate a case if it’s referred to us – by a tenant, landlord or other stakeholder. But in future we’ll proactively inspect landlords to make sure they are complying with our standards. In other words, we’ll seek assurance they are providing safe, decent and good quality homes, engaging with tenants and delivering effective landlord services.
As part of our work to gear up, we’re speaking to tenants up and down the country including many with councils as their landlord. Tenants tell us how important and empowering these changes will be for them. This reinforces how vital it is landlords understand what is coming down the tracks and get ready.
One of the main changes will be our new inspection programme. We’re developing our approach to inspecting landlords, including councils. They will be in depth, rigorous and focus on service outcomes and accountability.
For councils, we’ll be looking at service performance, engagement with tenants and the assurance that councillors are getting about the quality of homes. We will test this against a range of evidence, such as data from Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs – more on this below), the Housing Ombudsman (which manages individual complaints) and feedback from tenants.
We’ve already launched pilot inspections with a range of social landlords – including councils – and we’ll use the lessons to shape our final approach.
Through our TSMs landlords will ask tenants about their performance, and they will need to collect and publish this data annually. The TSMs will cover a range of topics, including compliance with the Decent Homes Standard, as well as tenants’ satisfaction with their landlords’ complaints and repairs services. This will be an important part of the picture when we assess landlords.
There can be no doubt new consumer regulation is a big shift. But for councils with robust systems and the right culture already in place, getting ready shouldn’t be a burden. Here are some practical steps councils can take:
• Make sure you’re on top of your data and have the right systems in place. Without this, you won’t be in a strong position to demonstrate that you comply with our standards when we start the inspections.
• Make sure you comply with our existing standards and have robust reporting across all areas of health and safety compliance. This may sound like a given – and it should be – but even the strongest performing landlords can benefit from fully reviewing their position. If you don’t comply now, it’s unlikely you will under the new approach.
• Treat damp and mould as the serious issues that they are. The tragic death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale has reinforced how severe the consequences can be when landlords don’t do this.
• Make sure you listen to your tenants when they report issues and take prompt action to address them, as well as the underlying issue, where appropriate.
• Self-refer to us when you think you’ve found a problem. Don’t wait until something goes very wrong before you contact us – we can help you put things right.
So what are the next steps? We’re currently updating our consumer standards to reflect the Bill. We intend to consult on them by this summer, and we really want to hear as much feedback as possible from a wide range of voices. We encourage councils to look out for this and share your views with us.
We’re already engaging with councils across the country, and we’re always eager to hear feedback from officers, councillors and tenants. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about the changes to consumer regulation and how you can help shape the outcome.
When we speak to councils, we come back to the same core message: it’s ultimately down to landlords to make changes promptly where they are needed and not wait for our inspections. New legislation will give us greater powers, but landlords should provide quality services because it’s the right thing to do – not because the regulator is looking.
Kate Dodsworth is director of consumer regulation at the Regulator of Social Housing
