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CWAG News Update April 2022

Government scraps Building Safety Manager requirement

The Government has set out further amendments to the Building Safety Bill removing the requirement for building owners to employ a building safety manager on high rise blocks.
This change reflects the new approach set out by DLUHC in January based around protecting leaseholders and making building owners and developers take responsibility for fixing building safety issues.
The Bill originally required landlords of high-rise blocks to employ a building safety manager to ensure fire safety compliance. The plan envisaged that costs associated with this would be covered through a building safety charge payable by leaseholders in addition to the service charge.
By removing the legal requirement to employ a building safety manager the government is focussing responsibility on the Accountable Person, usually the building owner, to ensure fire safety requirements are met. The separate building safety charge is also to be removed with additional safety costs to be included in leaseholder service charges.
In addition, the government has extended leaseholder protections to small landlords (owning up to three properties). As a result of these amendments the government claims many leaseholders will now pay nothing for remediation works, with no leaseholder paying more than £10,000 (£15,000 in London) in total.
These amendments are a response to concerns raised by leaseholders about escalating costs and aim to provide some longer-term financial protection.

Housing Ombudsman strengthens Complaints Handling Code

The Housing Ombudsman has published an initial review of the Complaints Handling Code introduced in 2020. The review covers the period April 2020 – March 2021 and brings together insights from casework, performance reports and recent resident panel and landlord surveys.
Key issues for social landlords are identified including:
  • Addressing the finding that not all landlords have adopted a positive complaint handling culture
  • Increasing trust among residents that complaining will make a difference
  • Procedural failings as evidenced by high uphold rates for complaints about complaint handling
  • Inadequate records with poor record keeping being a common finding
  • Missed or unproductive appointments
  • Poor communication and lack of follow up.
The Housing Ombudsman’s Annual Complaints Review is available here
In response to the review findings, the Housing Ombudsman has strengthened and updated the Complaints Handling Code with a focus on promoting a positive complaints culture. Measures include:
·         Enhanced obligations on landlords to raise awareness of the complaints process and the Housing Ombudsman.
·         A member of the governing body should be appointed with lead responsibility for complaints to support a positive complaint handling culture.
·         Landlords should adopt a standard objective in relation to complaint handling for all employees referencing established professional standards.
·         The importance of learning from complaints should be reinforced by an explicit requirement to undertake an annual self-assessment.
Changes take effect from 1 April 2022 and landlords have until 1 October 2022 to become compliant. Further details – The Housing Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code Revised March 2022

Government sets out plans to improve the quality of social housing

On 29th March 2022, the Government published a summary of current policy initiatives aimed at improving the quality of social housing and delivering on commitments made in the Social Housing White Paper.
These include:
·         Commitment set out in the Levelling Up White Paper to reduce the number of non-decent rental homes by 50% by 2050.
·         Various initiatives around improving complaints handling and promoting the services of the Housing Ombudsman including a new factsheet explaining the role of the Ombudsman and how residents can seek help.
·         Publication of an anti-social behaviour information pack for tenants experiencing anti-social behaviour.
·         Professionalism Review looking at training and qualification levels in the social housing sector and whether additional training is required to improve services to residents.
·         New regulations around the installation of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms by October 2022 as well as a forthcoming consultation on electrical safety.
·         New initiatives to improve Regulation of the social housing sector including the launch of a Social Housing Quality Residents Panel and proposals to name and shame failing landlords who have breached the Regulator’s consumer standards or where the Housing Ombudsman has made a severe maladministration finding.
·         Publication of draft clauses to be included in forthcoming legislation to implement changes to regulation  as set out in the Social Housing White Paper. Publication now is intended to signal the Government’s intention to progress this legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

Next CWAG General Meeting – 19th May 2022

The next CWAG General Meeting will we held on Thursday 19th May 2022 (9.30a.m. – 11.30a.m.)
The meeting theme will focus on effective complaints handling includingthe link between a positive complaints handling culture and wider measures to mitigate the risk of successful disrepair claims.
There will be a presentation by Rebecca Reed, Head of Insight and Development at the Housing Ombudsman. Rebecca will discuss complaints handling issues and trends, including learning from recent casework, key drivers behind increasing complaint volumes and practical steps councils should be taking as landlords to improve and strengthen performance.
The meeting will also consider the current rise in disrepair claims and include case study material and the opportunity to discuss different approaches and share best practice.
  
Please contact the Policy Officer for further details and the meeting link.

Recent Publications

Three-year Corporate Plan sets out how the Housing Ombudsman Service plans to manage the unprecedented increase in demand for its services given the changing role and importance of complaints handling.
This report shines a light on problems experienced by social landlords where properties are developed through Section 106 Agreements. Social landlords with a headlease sit between individual leaseholders, freeholders and private sector managing agents with relationships ‘often strained and at worst dysfunctional’.

The report includes a recommendation for local authorities to ensure social landlords are involved at an early stage of schemes involving Section 106 Agreements. Failure to do so can result in long-term problems being ‘baked-in’ prior to the involvement of the social landlord. As a result, some social landlords are seeking to reduce their exposure in this sector with implications for future social housing provision.

CWAG News Update April 20222023-04-28T14:27:40+00:00

CWAG News Update – March 2022

Building Safety Bill Update

On 14th February 2022, the Government tabled a set of amendments to the Building Safety Bill which aim to deliver on the government’s promise to protect leaseholders from building safety remediation costs and ensure developers, manufacturers and building owners pay for works to make blocks safe.
These amendments establish a statutory hierarchy of funding sources for non-cladding building safety remediation costs. Each funding source will need to be exhausted before the next tier is triggered.
1.      Developers and cladding manufacturers are expected to pay first.
Enforcement is proposed through a range of measures including:
  • Sanctions for those refusing to pay, including losing the ability to receive planning permission and building control sign off for their projects.
  • New powers to prevent developers avoiding liability by using shell companies for individual developments. Where the parent company linked to the original development firm is still trading the liability will revert to them.
  • Cost contribution orders for cladding and insulation manufacturing firms convicted of an offence and new powers for residents to sue manufacturers under the Defective Premises Act.
2.      Freeholders are expected to pay next, subject to their ability to pay.
  • The proposed amendment requires freeholders with resources to pay the full cost of remediation works, putting the freeholders liability to pay ahead of the leaseholder.
3.      Leaseholders will only be expected to pay a capped amount once other potential funding sources are exhausted.
  • Leaseholder contributions will be capped at £15,000 in London and £10,000 elsewhere.
  • Any costs paid out be leaseholders towards building safety in the past 5 years will count towards the capped amount e.g. waking watch payments. Caps will also be reduced on a pro-rata basis for shared ownership.
Implications for local authority and other social landlords
These amendments do not draw a distinction between developers and local authorities. So far, there is no indication that the social sector will be given special treatment and excluded from these additional financial liabilities, which has implications for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA). In addition, there is a separate concern about developments on council owned land where the council is the freeholder. See LGA briefing on the Building Safety Bill for further details and related LGA ‘asks’.

Consultation Response – Tenant Satisfaction Measures

CWAG members met on 17th February to consider the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) consultation on Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).
Kate Dodsworth, Head of Consumer Regulation at RSH introduced the session outlining the role of TSMs and the wider regulatory and cultural shift which aims to provide a clearer focus on how tenants experience landlord services. TSMs are one element of more proactive consumer regulation.
 At the time of our meeting, the RSH had already received in excess of 300 responses to the consultation, an indicator of the widespread interest and debate that has been generated around the consultation.
There are 22 proposed TSMs which track the 5 key themes in the Social Housing White Paper:
·         Keeping properties in good repair
·         Maintaining building safety
·         Effective handling of complaints
·         Respectful and helpful engagement
·         Responsible neighbourhood management.
CWAG members were keen to acknowledge that TSMs will provide insights into landlord performance and recognise that tenants may find the information useful in comparing their landlord with others. However, the data is at a very high level from a tenant perspective which may undermine the primary objective of TSMs which is to provide greater transparency on landlord performance in a way that is meaningful to tenants.
Other feedback highlighted a concern that TSMs are overly reliant on high level perception data. Members felt perception surveys may pick up dated, inaccurate or subjective views, for example on quality of repair and other technical issues, giving a distorted picture of landlord performance. It would therefore be helpful to include additional measures to triangulate performance data. For example, data from the English House Condition Survey would offer a broader perspective on stock condition, providing an independent check to balance results based on perception data alone.
Some CWAG members also felt that transactional surveys should be included where they provide more focussed and accurate data, for example on anti-social behaviour and for evaluating performance on repairs.
The technical part of the consultation (as detailed in the consultation annexes) is very difficult to either agree or disagree with at this point. CWAG members suggested that it would be helpful to run the proposed system initially as a pilot to test the methodology and identify any issues and discrepancies prior to implementing full publication and regulatory scrutiny.

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund – Update

The 2019 Conservative Manifesto included a proposal for a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a 10- year period, to improve the energy performance of social rented homes.
The 2020 Summer Economic Update announced the £50m Demonstrator fund (later increased to £61m) to deliver innovative retrofit projects for social housing, demonstrating a targeted performance level and cost reduction. The Demonstrator Programme covered 18 projects and 2100 dwellings and was focussed on learning lessons about high complexity whole house retrofits.
The Government then announced £160m (later increased to £179m) for Wave 1 of the SHDF in financial year 2021/22 (projects are due to complete by March 2023). This programme includes 69 projects  and is due to deliver upgrades to 20,000 social housing properties with Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or lower. The programme has a focus on ‘fabric first’ heat loss prevention measures in preparation for low carbon heating, either now or in the future.
The 2021 Spending Review has committed a further £800 million to the SHDF for the three-year period. The bidding round for Wave 2 will be launched in the new financial year and will again focus on ‘fabric first’ and ‘clean heat where appropriate’. Support is available for local authorities wishing to bid – see Self-Assessment and Presentation on Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund by Matt Harrison – BEIS Programme Director.

Housing Ombudsman Updates

In February the Housing Ombudsman Service published three reports providing feedback and learning from recent complaints handling casework.
Insight Report Issue 9 covering October – December 2021 including a regional focus on the North of England.
The volume of enquiries and complaints to the Housing Ombudsman service has continued to rise steeply – the service received 6,313 enquiries and complaints between October and December 2021, a rise of 53% as compared to the same quarter in 2020. Maladministration was found to have occurred in 47% of cases, also an increase on the previous review period.
Key learning points highlighted include the importance of effective communication, mediation to achieve earlier resolution and continued monitoring of ASB complaints.
Report into complaint handling failure orders issued October -December 2021
The purpose of complaint handling failure orders is to ensure that a landlord’s complaint handling process is accessible, consistent and enables the timely progression of complaints for residents.
Complaint handling failures orders are used in cases of:
·         Landlord’s unreasonable delays in accepting or progressing a complaint through its process
·         Unreasonable delays in providing complaint information requested by the Ombudsman
·         Complaints procedures and processes that are not being compliant with the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
This report covers the 19 complaint handling failure orders issued between October and December 2021 and includes 3 case studies demonstrating how and when failure orders are used. Read Report

Recent Publications

Social Housing Reform in England: What Next? Research Briefing published by the House of Commons Library (February 2022)
This briefing paper considers the period since the Grenfell Fire in June 2017, setting out the government’s plans for reform of social housing and progress achieved to date. Ongoing issues and concerns are identified including:
·         the slow pace of social housing reform;
·         failure to address issues around the supply of homes for social rent;
·         lack of clarity about who and what social housing is for;
·         failure to fully address the issue of stigma, exacerbated by the Government’s strong focus on home ownership;
·         lack of a national platform or representative body to represent tenants’ interests;
·         potential resourcing challenges for social landlords.

Download Report

CWAG News Update – March 20222023-04-28T14:27:40+00:00

CWAG News Update February 2022

Building Safety Update

Progress of the Building Safety Bill

The Building Safety Bill has completed the 3rd reading stage in the House of Commons and has now begun its passage through the House of Lords. The Bill is expected to become law before the end of this Parliamentary session.
Work on the associated secondary legislation is already advanced but there will still need to be a series of public consultations around implementation issues once the Bill becomes law. Full implementation is likely to follow on within a year to 18 months.
Government plans to protect leaseholders and make developers pay for the cladding crisis
On 10th January Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, announced significant changes to the Government’s approach to tackling the cladding crisis in high rise buildings. Key elements include:
  – New protections for leaseholders; including a commitment that they will not be billed for fixing unsafe cladding.
  – An amendment to the Building Safety Bill will extend the legal right of leaseholders to seek compensation from developers for safety defects in buildings up to 30 years old.
  – An additional £27million fund will be made available to cover the installation of fire alarms in all high-risk buildings (not limited to buildings over 18m). This is intended to end the costly use of waking watch fire safety patrols, usually paid for by leaseholders.
  – Restoring a proportionate common-sense approach to building assessments through a government backed scheme to indemnify building assessors from being sued; and withdrawing the previous government advice that prompted so many buildings being declared as unsafe.
The principle underpinning these measures is that those responsible for the cladding problem should fund remediation. Developers and companies at fault will be held accountable and required to fix the buildings they built or face commercial consequences, including a government-imposed solution, if they refuse to comply. The industry has been given 2 months to agree a plan of action to fund remediation costs, currently estimated at £4 billion.
Success will depend on the responsiveness of the building industry and the credibility of the threatened sanctions if they fail to comply. Some commentators question whether the sum of £4 billion will be sufficient to address the scale of the problems which now extend well beyond the initial cladding scandal to other building components. Other measures to free up the housing market depend on the responsiveness of lenders and other professionals to the Government’s attempts to promote a more proportionate approach to risk and building safety.

Social Housing Regulation Bill to be published in March

The 2021 Queen’s Speech did not include a Social Housing Bill resulting in uncertainty around the timetable for the implementation of pro-active consumer regulation.
However, the Government has now indicated its intention to publish the Social Housing Regulation Bill in March this year, signalling that the legislation required to effect key changes to the Regulator’s key objectives will be progressed more quickly than anticipated, highlighting the importance of work already under way within the sector to prepare for the new arrangements.

Social Housing White Paper Professionalism Review

The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced a Professionalism Review which aims to drive up standards within the social housing sector. This was identified as a priority in the Social Housing White Paper and aims to ensure staff are ‘better equipped to support tenants, deal effectively with complaints and ensure homes are good quality’.
The review will consider issues around staff training and qualifications as well as evidence from social housing residents about their experience dealing with social housing staff.
For further information see the MLUHC press release

Next CWAG Meeting Details

The next CWAG meeting will consider the RSH Consultation on Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).
Kate Dodsworth Director of Consumer Regulation at RSH will introduce the session setting out the background and rationale underpinning the TSMs and how they fit within the wider proposed changes to regulation in the Social Housing White Paper.
This will be followed by a discussion around the consultation questions and in particular issues for councils with ALMOs, given that the data collection element may be undertaken by the ALMO but has implications for the council as landlord.
The meeting will be held over Teams on Thursday 17th February 2022 (timing 9.30a.m – 11a.m.)
Please contact the Policy Officer for further details and the meeting link.

CWAG Website Survey

CWAG is planning to replace the group’s existing website over the next few months. As a starting point we are seeking feedback on how members use the current website and the features and functionality you would like to see in the new website. Please send feedback by 9th February 2022.We would also like to identify a ‘virtual steering group’ of CWAG members to comment on the plans as they develop. Please contact the Policy Officer if you would be interested in being part of this group.

Housing Ombudsman Spotlight Reports

The Housing Ombudsman’s Spotlight reports use insights from casework to share learning and drive improvements for the benefit of all residents. Recent reports have looked at damp and mould, cladding complaints and heating and hot water.
In 2022 there will be two new reports:
The first of the reports will consider maladministration cases where a managing agent may have been involved in the response to the resident’s issues. In these circumstances the Ombudsman considers the landlord to be responsible for the relationship with the resident and therefore responsible for working with other parties to resolve issues.
The second report will focus on complaints about noise, often including anti-social behaviour, which are a large and growing element of the Ombudsman’s casework. The report, due to be published in the summer, will cover:
  • Noise caused by other residents
  • Noise from works, contractors or other external sources
  • Noise attributed to poor soundproofing or other building defects.

New in the Library

Presentation Slides from the Finance and Business Planning Meeting held on 25th January 2022

CWAG News Update February 20222023-04-28T14:27:40+00:00

CWAG News Update – December 2021

This update includes the following:
·         CWAG Organisational Update
·         CWAG / NFA Report – Excellence in Management and Partnership
·         Smoke Alarms to become a legal requirement in social housing
·         Homelessness and the Homeful Campaign
·         Future Meeting Date
·         Recent Publications

CWAG Organisational Update

Following the Annual General Meeting in September, the Executive Group met to agree who should take over as Chair following the resignation of Ceri Davies who has moved to a new job and unable to continue in the role.
Following this meeting we are pleased to announce that the new CWAG Chair is Anna Milner, Operations Manager Housing Strategy at South Tyneside Council. Anna has been part of the Executive Group since 2017 and a longstanding supporter of the group. On taking up the position Anna was keen to acknowledge the contribution made by the Ceri who has held the position since 2019.
‘On behalf of the Executive group and wider membership, I would like to thank Ceri for all her hard work as Chair in promoting and raising the profile of the group. Ceri has been particularly keen to develop a wider understanding of the council role in the ALMO management model and had a key role in delivering the joint CWAG / NFA report ‘Excellence in Management and Partnership’ with its focus on dialogue and partnership working in delivering effective assurance through the client role.
The Annual General Meeting also confirmed the re-election of Fiona Dodsworth (Newcastle City Council) and Joy Ashman (Cornwall Council) to the Executive Group, as well as the new election of Geoff Beales (Colchester BC) and Tim Holland (Southend on Sea BC).
Opportunity to join the CWAG Executive Group
More recently, a vacancy has arisen on the Executive Group as Michael Moncrieff (London Borough of Lewisham) is moving on to a new job. Our thanks to Michael for his contribution and support and best wishes in the new job. Anyone interested in joining the CWAG Executive please contact the Policy Officer.
Move to a new Administrative Authority
Work is ongoing to complete the transfer of the Administrative Authority role from Manchester City Council to Nottingham City Council. This involves the TUPE of the Policy Officer and transfer of financial oversight and the CWAG account. We will keep members updated on this progress.

CWAG / NFA Report ‘Excellence in Management and Partnership’

This CWAG / NFA report follows a year-long joint project examining council-ALMO management structures and relationships.
The report reviews the various models of management, partnership and assurance that have evolved between parent councils and their ALMOs and concludes that these are not only flexible and responsive to local circumstances but also well-suited to the challenges of more pro-active consumer regulation.
A key objective of the report is to provide examples and context to inform conversations between local authorities and their ALMOs on the key areas of performance, assurance, and compliance. A toolkit checklist is also included to help track compliance in nine key areas across resident engagement, performance monitoring, audit and risk management, and health & safety.

Smoke alarms to become a legal requirement in social housing

On 23rd November 2021 the government announced the introduction of new rules requiring the provision of smoke alarms in all social rented homes (already a mandatory requirement in the private rented sector).
In addition, carbon monoxide alarms must also be fitted in social and private accommodation in any room with a fixed combustion appliance, such as a gas boiler or fire (but excluding gas cookers).
These reforms follow a consultation exercise in 2020 and subsequent commitments made in the Social Housing White Paper earlier this year.
Reforms will be brought forward through the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 and the statutory guidance (Approved Document J) supporting Part J of the Building Regulations with the implementation date as soon as practicable after the regulations are made. The cost of complying with the new requirements will fall to the property owners.

Homelessness and the Homeful Campaign

On 8th December Professor Jo Richardson met with CWAG members to discuss homelessness and the Homeful Campaign. Jo is the current President of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and Associate Dean and Professor of Housing and Social Research at De Montford University
Jo began her presentation by outlining her background and how in her passion for housing was sparked when she volunteered with a homelessness organisation in New York as a student in 1991. The experience made a lasting impression, particularly conversations with young people whose lives and aspirations were scarred by homelessness. The result was a positive decision to pursue a career in social housing.
Jo has been a member of CIH since 1995 and now as CIH President she is heading up the ‘Homeful Campaign’. The title is derived from two words ‘home’ and ‘hopeful.’ This is an action research project that aims to move beyond identifying and quantifying the problem to focus on the solution through practical and effective housing led approaches to tackling homelessness. It is also a collaborative project that aims to engage not just those working in social housing but also tenants, those with experience of homelessness and other interested agencies and stakeholders.
The campaign has three distinct elements:
·         A survey of all local authorities looking at learning from the pandemic and going forward what more we can do. The questionnaires will be going out in January with a 6 week turn around
·         Survey link to capture the views of tenants
·         Fundraising campaign called 22/22 with money raised focussed on young people and homelessness.
Inspired by the book ‘The Salt Path’ by Raynor Wynn, Jo is planning to walk the 630 miles of the SW Coastal Path; a real personal challenge, and she admits one that she isn’t sure she will be able to achieve. Jo encouraged everyone to join in the campaign, perhaps by joining her for part of the walk or other fundraising. See the CIH Homeful webpage for more details.

CWAG Meeting Date

The next CWAG Meeting will be a Finance and Business Planning Meeting on held on Tuesday 25th January 2022 (timing 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.) 
Steve Partridge – Savills Director of Housing Consultancy will lead this event which will focus on current finance and business planning issues affecting the sector. The meeting will be of particular interest to finance officers, and anyone involved in HRA strategy and business planning.
 The event is open to CWAG members – to book a place, please contact the Policy Officer.

Recent Publications

This paper sets out the Regulator’s initial thinking on how they will approach implementing the changes to regulation set out in the Social Housing White Paper. The introduction of proactive consumer regulation is still some way off as the new regime will require legislation, however this document confirms that the overall approach remains co-regulatory, proportionate, risk- and assurance-based, focussed on high level outcomes rather than prescriptive requirements.
The new regime for consumer regulation will promote safe homes and quality landlord services under six broad themes: safety, quality, neighbourhood, transparency, engagement and accountability and tenancy.
The latest Housing Ombudsman quarterly Insight report covers the period July to September 2021 and confirms that the volume of enquiries and complaints to the service is continuing to increase. Each quarter the report focusses on data and case studies from a specific region – in this case Greater London. Case studies include several noise related complaints and the potential to use mediation services for this category of complaint. The report also highlights that it is not unusual for investigations to find that landlords responded to well to the substantive issue, but their complaint handling fell short causing further distress and inconvenience for residents.
CWAG News Update – December 20212023-04-28T14:27:40+00:00

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