SOCIAL HOUSING
WHITE PAPER
In November 2020, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the Social Housing White Paper, titled The Charter for Social Housing Residents. The paper has a strong focus on strengthening consumer regulation and empowering residents. It covers seven key areas and explains what residents should be able to expect from their landlord: The Government intends to raise safety standards and help residents feel safer in their homes. They will work with landlords to ensure every home is safe and secure, and intends to: • Legislate to require social landlords to identify a nominated person responsible for complying with their health and safety requirements; • Launch a consultation on requiring smoke alarms in social housing and introducing new expectations for carbon monoxide alarms; and • Consult on measures to ensure that social housing residents are protected from harm caused by poor electrical safety.
1. TO FEEL SAFE IN THEIR HOMES
2. TO KNOW HOW YOUR LANDLORD IS PERFORMING The Government plans to create a set of tenant satisfaction measures for landlords on things that matter to tenants. This will inform how a landlord is performing and what decisions it is making. The government will: • Ensure landlords provide a clear breakdown of how their income is being spent; and • Require landlords to identify a senior person in their organisation who is responsible for ensuring they comply with the consumer standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing.
3. TO HAVE YOUR COMPLAINTS DEALT WITH PROMPTLY AND FAIRLY Residents should get quick resolution to their complaints. The Government will: • Ensure tenants know how to raise complaints and have confidence in the system by launching a communications campaign; • Legislate to ensure clear co-operation between the Housing Ombudsman and the Regulator of Social Housing to hold landlords to account more effectively when things go wrong; and • Make landlords more accountable for their actions by publicising the details of cases determined and published by the Housing Ombudsman. What are the next steps for the White Paper? The White Paper will have notable implications for our residents, how we operate as a social landlord and how the whole social housing sector will operate over the coming years. The implementation of the proposals has already started, with the Regulator of Social Housing appointing a newly created role of Director of Consumer Regulation in January 2021. Not all the proposals will be implemented at the same time, as many will require legislative and regulatory changes, and the anticipated timescales for these changes are currently unclear.
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