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The Week in Housing: English regulator publishes first-year TSM results, and impact of Storm Bert
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Good afternoon.
This week saw the publication of the long-awaited results on the tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) in England.
Inside Housing has already provided a detailed examination of the scores based on our own research.
This week’s publication revealed that more than 70% of low-cost renters are happy with their accommodation, although those proportions dipped for shared owners. The analysis also looked in detail at the impact of collection methods on overall scores, which Inside Housing has been highlighting over the past year.
Writing exclusively for Inside Housing, Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing, set out how landlords should be using their TSM results.
For many landlords and residents, though, the big story of the week was the impact of Storm Bert on their homes and communities. We took a detailed look at the impact and work to support residents by Welsh social landlords.
Elsewhere in Wales, trade body Community Housing Cymru has a new chair: Gerraint Oakley, director of growth and development at Platform Housing Group.
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In London, one major landlord was downgraded to a G3 for governance and handed a C3 rating amid “serious failings” with the regulator’s consumer standards.
There were also further indications of a significant slowdown in delivery of new housing in the capital, with the publication of figures on affordable housing starts.
But the drive for quality in London took further shape this week. L&Q put its private rental business on sale. It stated it would reinvest additional funding from the sale into building and managing social homes.
On the move, group chief executive Fiona Fletcher-Smith said: “In recent years, the social housing sector has faced economic volatility, policy shifts and funding uncertainties. In response, we have a clear strategy which is focused on simplifying our business, prioritising our core purpose as a social housing provider.”
L&Q was also one of the winners at this year’s UK Housing Awards, with subsidiary L&Q Living picking up the award for best supported housing landlord.
Other winners included Great Places Housing Group, Thirteen, Flagship, Settle, Choice Housing Northern Ireland, Caerphilly Council and Wheatley Group, which picked up two awards. Inside Housing will publish a detailed look at learning from the winners in December’s edition.
Speaking at this week’s HOMES UK conference, chief property officer Rob Lane said when it came to Clarion’s stock disposal programme, it is only selling to registered providers that have a G1/V2 rating. The disposals help the association “concentrate” its portfolio, he added.
The urgent need for more social housing was also highlighted this week with the news that there are now almost 160,000 children living in temporary accommodation – a figure that has jumped by more than 20,000 in the past year.
One landlord with plans to increase delivery is Karbon Homes, which announced plans to launch its own for-profit provider to “attract external investment and deliver more much-needed social housing across the North East and Yorkshire”.
Clive Betts, the former long-serving chair of parliament’s housing select committee, warned why he thinks that planning reforms alone will not deliver enough new homes.
The Older People’s Housing Taskforce published a new report stating there is a need for one in 10 homes delivered by Homes England to be for older people, to combat the unaffordability of retirement housing.
In Northern Ireland, housing associations warned that rents will rise due to a proposed 123% hike in the cost of connecting a new home to the electricity grid.
Merging landlords Grand Union Housing Group and Longhurst Group announced new details of the organisation, including the name. The merger is due to complete on 16 December.
In London, mayor Sadiq Khan set out details of a new ‘rent control’ tenure for key workers.
In fire safety news, Kensington and Chelsea Council said it plans to extend its ban on using firms and their products that were criticised in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report.
Finally, deputy news editor Grainne Cuffe spent a day with a social landlord to find out how it turned around tenant satisfaction ratings with its repairs service in a matter of months.
Have a great weekend.
Martin Hilditch, editor, Inside Housing
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