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Tenant stakeholder group more positive on consumer standards than any other, says RSH
Tenants have been the most positive on the proposed new consumer standards compared with any other group, including landlords, the chief of regulatory engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has said.
Speaking on a panel at the Northern Housing Consortium’s Summit in Leeds, Kate Dodsworth said “as a group, the tenant stakeholder group was more positive about consumer standards than any other of the stakeholder groups… slightly more positive than landlords”.
She said that over 60% of more than 1,000 responses to the consultation on the revised new consumer standards, launched in July, were from tenants.
The English regulator consulted on four revised standards designed to protect tenants and improve the services they receive. These are the Safety and Quality Standard; Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard; Neighbourhood and Community Standard; and the Tenancy Standard.
These will replace the Home Standard, Tenancy Standard, Neighbourhood and Community Standard, and Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard.
The standards will apply to all housing associations and stock-holding councils.
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Now closed, the consultation proposed that social landlords should physically inspect all of their homes.
The document said “registered providers must have an accurate record at an individual property level of the condition of their stock, based on a physical assessment of all homes, and keep this up to date”.
It did not define “up to date”, the interpretation of which the RSH is likely to leave to housing providers’ discretion.
The regulator, which is currently analysing responses, intends that the new standards be in place from April 2024.
Ms Dodsworth told the conference that tenant groups have a “let’s wait and see how this pans out” attitude towards the proposed standards.
She said: “I would understand from tenants’ perspective, who are having problems or issues with landlords and wanting to get things sorted out, I can understand there is almost some cynicism around whether the regulation will actually sort all of this out.
“[Providers], if everything you’re doing, if all the changes you’re putting in place are because of [housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway] or because of me as a regulator… you’re answering the wrong question.
“These changes are around core mission and purpose and your landlord services.”
Ms Dodsworth said what the regulator is trying to achieve, which she believes is shared by all stakeholder groups, is that “tenants live in good-quality, safe homes, experience universally good landlord services, and that’s underpinned by a relationship that is transparent and respectful”.
Earlier, Mr Blakeway, who was also on the panel, warned landlords about the dangers of complaint-handling failures when merging.
“Mergers, organisational change, perhaps unsurprisingly, can lead to failures in both service or complaint-handling,” he said. He added that he still sees landlords insufficiently prepared for managing that side of things when going through significant organisational change.
At an earlier session, Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotheram described the King’s Speech as the “limpest” King or Queen’s speech “in living memory”.
He said: “I don’t know about you, but given the challenges facing the country, I was disappointed by the porosity of ideas being brought forward by the government.
“Now that was certainly the case of housing.”
Mr Rotheram added that “it was thin gruel indeed”; there was nothing to “kick-start” housebuilding and “broken promises” on Section 21 eviction.
“It’s a gross betrayal of the next generation to make [home]ownership completely out of reach of ordinary people,” he said.
After the speech, the sector described the King’s Speech as “desperately disappointing” and a “missed opportunity”.
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