Consumer regulation and tenant safety The long-awaited Social Housing White Paper was published in 2020, setting out the Government’s proposed package for the reform of the social housing regulatory regime, rebalancing the relationship between landlord and tenant.
The National Housing Federation’s Code of Governance 2020 incorporates the commitments of the charter into the code to strengthen the relationship between customers and Board. The Complaints Handling Code developed by the Housing Ombudsman and the Regulator provides the framework to ensure that complaints are dealt with promptly and fairly. The Housing Ombudsman is reporting landlords failing to meet the required standards on their website and has a closer relationship with the regulator to report to them any breaches of the code, maladministration findings and systemic failures.
The Charter for Social Housing Residents aims to raise the standard of social housing and meet the aspirations of residents. The themes of the charter are; To be safe in your home To know how your landlord is performing
Our customers have been working with us to review the commitments of all of these codes and have recommended actions to enhance our processes. These include actions to improve how they communicate with the Thirteen Board. Traditionally this has been through the chair of the customer involvement framework, who attends every Board meeting, however, to enhance and improve the flow of information and assurance, the customer project leads also now attend Board meetings to report on their projects and findings and Board members provide feedback to customers about their discussions and decisions. Customers have also continued to be involved in service improvements through consultation and testing systems, scrutinising operational and complaints performance and reviewing policies and have reported to Board their assessment of our performance against the commitments in the charters and codes and recommendations for improvements, and their assessments of our compliance with the regulatory consumer standards.
To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly To be treated with respect To have your voice heard by your landlord To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in To be supported to take your first step to ownership In 2019 we became early adopters of the National Housing Federation Together with Tenants Charter which reflected the Social Housing Green Paper consultation to protect the rights and interests of tenants and residents. This charter has a clear set of commitments which require all landlords to be open and transparent with tenants, keeping them informed of and consulted on the strategic direction and performance of the organisation; focusing on relationships, communication, customer voice and influence, accountability, quality and what happens when things go wrong.
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