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Ofsted-style inspections will not happen, says ITV journalist behind repairs investigation
Ofsted-style inspections of social landlords will “not happen” and changes to the English regulator and sector’s culture are most important to implementing widespread improvements, the journalist who led ITV’s 18-month investigation into poor social housing conditions has said.
During a session looking at what needs to change at the Housing 2022 conference in Manchester, Daniel Hewitt, part of the team that exposed horrific conditions endured by some social tenants, said he does not believe regular and widespread Ofsted-style inspections would happen and that it is down to the sector to change instead.
He said: “The regulator employs 201 in the whole of England, they are not going to be knocking on your door every week
“The government can say ‘Ofsted-style inspections’, [it’s] not going to happen. It really, really, really relies on you guys to sort this.”
He made the comments after being asked whether the recently published Social Housing Regulation Bill would make a big difference.
Part of changes in regulation, prompted five years ago by the Grenfell Tower fire and enacted this month, include the ability of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) to inspect under-performing landlords.
The government said they will be “Ofsted-style” inspections, while the length of time the regulator has to warn organisations about visits will now be cut from 28 days to 48 hours.
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Mr Hewitt said the bill was clearly a step forward from where the sector had been, but more work is needed.
He added that there was a “huge gap” between what the sector thinks is good and what it is doing.
“Ultimately, it’s down to the sector to change that. I don’t think the regulations are going to do that,” he said.
When he first started investigating social housing conditions in 2021, he “could not get his head around” the “complete absence” of role for the regulator in the sector, adding that this was just accepted by landlords.
“But when we spoke to housing associations, rather than saying, ‘We completely agree that we’re not really being regulated’… rather than saying there’s a problem and flagging it as a problem, the sector sort of allowed this to happen in some ways,” Mr Hewitt added.
Alison Inman, an independent board member at Tpas, was also a speaker on the panel.
She said she had “no doubt” that positive consumer regulation is “going to be a game changer”. But added that it was “really disappointing” that it required this for the sector to change.
“Even though we like to think of ourselves as the good guys… if you only do engagement because somebody’s making you do it, then that’s not particularly good,” Ms Inman said.
Panelist Bronwen Rapley, chief executive of Onward Homes, said self-regulation will be a “real challenge” for the sector.
“So we’ve got to step up and we’ve got to demonstrate that we can be trusted and that we can respond,” she stated.
Michelle Baker, tenant and chair of the customer influence committee at Eastlight Community Homes, said it comes down to communication.
“Tenants don’t understand that there are things in place to protect us and we actually have those rights,” she explained.
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