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English regulator asks for landlords’ views on powers to issue unlimited fines
Social housing providers are being urged to respond to a consultation on how the English regulator will use its new powers, which include the ability to issue failing landlords with unlimited fines.
The 10-week consultation, which launched today, is seeking views on the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) updated statutory guidance that outlines how it will tackle landlords that are letting down tenants.
Proposed changes, unveiled in June last year, include lifting the £5,000 cap on the amount the regulator can fine a registered provider. This means, according to the consultation document, the “regulator has the potential to issue penalties of an unlimited amount”.
The RSH is getting the new powers under the post-Grenfell Social Housing Regulation Act, which became law in July. Most of the powers will take effect next April.
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In other planned changes, the RSH is getting a new power to authorise “emergency remedial action” for a home, without a warrant, if there is the “imminent risk of harm”.
However the consultation document said: “The regulator only anticipates using this power in exceptional circumstances where the health and safety of tenants is at imminent or serious risk.”
The regulator will also be able to force landlords to draw up and implement a performance improvement plan to tackle issues it identifies. Tenants must be given a copy of the plan.
Another change is the removal of the “serious detriment” test in relation to consumer standards. This means the RSH will be able to use it powers more easily without having to prove that a landlord’s failure has resulted in a “serious detriment” to a tenant.
The proposals come amid continuing heightened scrutiny of the sector since a wave of shocking cases in the media over poor housing standards, the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, and a long-running series of maladministration findings by the Housing Ombudsman.
Jonathan Walters, deputy chief executive at the RSH, said: “We will continue to have a proportionate approach and require landlords to fix problems when they fail to deliver the outcomes required in the standards.
“But if they don’t, we have a range of tools to make them put things right.”
He added: “We encourage tenants, landlords and others in the sector to take part in this important consultation.”
The deadline to respond to the consultation is 16 January.
A separate consultation on the RSH’s new set of consumer standards aimed at protecting tenants closed last month with the outcome yet to be published.
The RSH is also currently consulting on proposed changes to the way it charges fees to landlords.
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