Newsletters

CWAG Newsletter – April 2024

This Update includes the following

  • CWAG Organisational Update

  • Government confirms CPI + 1% rent settlement for 2025/26

  • Consultation Response – Competence and Conduct Standard

  • Good Practice Consultation – Housing Ombudsman

  • Recent Publications

  • CWAG Finance and Business Planning Meeting  – diary date

CWAG Organisational Update

Members will be aware that Southend City Council is planning to take on the Administrative Authority role on behalf of the group once all members have signed up to the Service Level Agreement. On transfer the policy officer post will transfer along with management of the group’s financial affairs.

In addition, the group has a new Chair. Geoff Beales from Colchester City Council has taken on the role on an interim basis as Anna Milner has stood aside from the position following the decision by South Tyneside to bring management back in house by 2nd October 2024. The post will be subject to an election at the Annual General Meeting in September. Anna will stay on as an Executive Member until the AGM.

Government confirms CPI + 1% rent settlement for 2025/26

The Government has confirmed that the existing social housing rent settlement will be rolled over by a further year until April 2026. This means annual rent increases will continue to be capped at Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus one percentage point for 2025-26.  This early announcement provides greater short-term certainty effectively deferring negotiations around the longer-term rental settlement for the next government.

Consultation Response – Competence and Conduct Standard

The Competence and Conduct Standard Consultation sets out the implementation arrangements for the new regulatory standard requiring senior housing managers and executives within social housing to either have or be working towards a relevant professional qualification.

The CWAG response recognises the value of relevant professional qualifications in improving performance and driving up standards in the social rented sector. However, alongside this there are concerns around the tight implementation timescales and the potential for these to negatively impact staff recruitment and retention in the short-term. The proposed timescales do not offer sufficient time to implement the necessary organisational and training challenges alongside succession planning.

In addition, the costs associated with introducing these measures are likely to be significantly higher than estimated in the impact assessment. No additional resources have been identified to cover implementation and associated costs which will need to be funded from already stretched Housing Revenue Accounts.

Other issues highlighted include role descriptions that are a poor fit with ALMO clienting arrangements and potential problems for organisations using external contractors where roles are deemed in scope of the new regulations.

View consultation response

Good Practice Consultation – Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman has launched a consultation for social housing landlords on a proposed new approach for issuing Good Practice. The proposals relate to new powers conferred on the Housing Ombudsman in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 to issue guidance on good practice in carrying out housing activities covered by the Ombudsman Scheme.

The consultation is about providing access to ‘good practice’ as opposed to ‘best practice’. As such, the proposed approach will encourage landlords to self-assess against a good practice template at the point an issue arises rather than wait for a complaint about the topic. In practice, there may be entirely justifiable reasons for the landlord’s response to differ from suggested good practice, however undertaking the self-assessment allows for the decision to be documented and scrutinised.

The consultation seeks feedback on the Ombudsman’s principles of good practice and proposed approach as well as suggestions for potential topics. The intention is to issue ‘good practice guidance on two topics per year. Initial suggested topics include:

  • making an effective apology
  • deciding on appropriate levels of compensation
  • effective complaint handling during merger or stock transfer
  • effective root cause analysis of complaints
  • knowledge and information management

The consultation closes on 21st May 2024

Good-Practice-consultation-26-March-2024.pdf (housing-ombudsman.org.uk)

Recent Publications

Housing Outlook Report Q1 2024 Resolution Foundation (March 2024)

This review sets the UK housing market within the context of similar advance economies and examines whether the housing crisis in the UK, particularly affordability pressures and quality issues are specific to the UK. Homes in the UK are more cramped, poorer quality and more expensive relative to general price levels than in other OECD countries. The housing stock is also the oldest in Europe (4 in 10 homes were built before 1946) with consequent issues around damp and poor insulation. The report highlights why housing is likely to feature prominently in this year’s General Election.

Download report

Follow-up report: Spotlight on Noise complaints – Time to be Heard – Housing Ombudsman (April 2024)

The Housing Ombudsman has published its evaluation into its Spotlight report on noise complaints. The report highlights several positive developments in this area including the following:

  • Landlords responding more sensitively and being more open to potential contributing factors underlying noise complaints.
  • Introducing timescales for responding to noise complaints.
  • Triaging noise complaints to ascertain whether they fall under household noise or ASB..
  • Focusing on preventative actions, such as using void improvements to help reduce noise concerns for incoming residents.
  • Developing a less confrontational approach including changes to the language used e.g. no longer using terms such as ‘perpetrator’ and ‘incidents’.

Download report

Learning from Severe Maladministration – Housing Ombudsman (April 2024)

This new Housing Ombudsman report is intended to be first of a new series of reports looking in more detail at the learning from recent casework where there has been a finding of severe maladministration. This report highlights cases involving 8 landlords.

Learning from Severe Maladministration (housing-ombudsman.org.uk)

Shared Ownership Report – House of Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee (March 2024)

This report looks in detail at the current problems with shared ownership including rapidly rising rents, uncapped service charges, liability for repairs and maintenance costs and complex leases which combined mean shared ownership has become an unbearable reality for many people seeking to become homeowners. The report makes a number of recommendations that are urgently required to improve shared ownership to address current weaknesses  undermining this ownership vehicle.

Download report

Finance and Business Planning Meeting – Diary Date

The next CWAG event is a Finance and Business Planning meeting on Thursday 6th June 2024 (10.00 – 13.00)
Steve Partridge – Savills Director of Housing Consultancy will be leading this event for finance officers and others with an interest in HRA strategy and business planning. The event is a free event that is open to CWAG members. To book a place, contact the CWAG Policy Officer.

CWAG Newsletter – April 20242024-04-22T09:04:18+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – March 2024

This Update includes the following

  • Right to Buy receipts and the Budget

  • Final version of RSH Consumer Standards published

  • Recent Publications

southend housing

Right to Buy Receipts and the Budget

The recent Budget included details of arrangements for the coming year covering the use of Right to Buy receipts to fund replacement affordable homes.

On the positive side, the Government has responded to calls for increased flexibility around the proportion of Right to Buy receipts that can be used as part of the funding package to deliver replacement homes. Local authorities will now be able to use a higher percentage of Right to Buy receipts, up from 40% to 50% of scheme costs, a change that should assist scheme viability and funding pressures.

However disappointingly there will be no extension of the temporary arrangement allowing councils to keep 100% of the Right to Buy receipts from council house sales in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This will now come to an end this month and receipts generated from sales in 2024/25 will be subject to a 20 -25% clawback by the Treasury, reducing resources and scope to deliver replacement homes.

Other regulations limiting the proportion of replacement homes that can acquired as acquisitions have been retained at 50% until 2025/26. Longer term the Government wants to see a balance between the delivery of new build homes using Right to Buy receipts and acquisitions, to ensure that Right to Buy receipts contribute to new housing supply.

Final version of RSH consumer standards published.

On 29th February the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) published a series of documents setting out the final arrangements for Consumer Regulation which will come into effect on 1 April 2024. A detailed summary of the new approach to regulation is set out in the publication Reshaping Consumer Regulation – our new approach. Guidance explaining  how the new regulatory arrangements will operate, including inspections, is set out in a collection of documents available on the ‘How we regulate’ page on the Regulator’s website.

The four revised consumer standards are:

Safety and Quality Standard – Sets outcomes about the safety and quality of tenants’ homes and the landlord services they receive.

Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard – Requires landlords to be open with tenants and treat them with fairness and respect so they can access services, raise concerns and influence decision making, holding their landlord to account.

Neighbourhood and Community Standard – Requires landlords to work constructively with other organisations to help ensure tenants live in safe neighbourhoods.

Tenancy Standard – Sets outcomes about how landlords allocate and let homes and manage tenancies.

housing silhouette

Recent Publications

The economic impact of building social housing – Report by  Centre for Economic and Building Research (CEBR)

This NHF and Shelter commissioned report sets out the arguments in favour of building social housing and forms part of the pre-election debate around housing policy. Based around scenario modelling the report tracks the economic, social and employment benefits of building 90,000 new social homes per year over a 10 year period. According to the researchers, significant benefits would accrue from the start of the programme with projections indicating that the programme would break even in the third year post construction achieving a net present value of £2.4 billion.  Download Executive Summary

Local Housing Allowance – What can Claimants Afford? – Savills Research

Research by Savills analysed over one million Zoopla asking rents in 2023 and concluded that only 8.5% of homes listed would have been affordable using the new uplifted LHA rates. From April LHA will increase on average by 17%, or £110 more per month, compared to when rates were last increased in April 2020. However, in the 4-year period private up to November 2023, private rents have grown on average by 29% across the UK suggesting that those reliant on housing benefit will continue to struggle. The report highlights the wider problem of affordability and high demand impacting all tenures emphasising the urgent need for delivery of more affordable homes to both rent and buy.

Download report

Complaints Handling Failure Orders Report (October – December 2023) – Housing Ombudsman

This latest quarterly report highlights a significant reduction in the number of complaints failure orders issued in the final quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter. With the introduction of the new Statutory Complaint Handling Code from April the report provides several good practice compliance examples relating to accepting complaints, agreeing extensions and provision of evidence.

Download report

The State of Local Government Finance in England 2024 Report – Local Government Information Unit

This annual survey of local government in England highlights the extreme and unprecedented financial pressures currently facing local authorities with 9% of councils indicating that they face bankruptcy in the next financial year and more than half warning they will be in a similar situation within the next 5 years if funding pressures are not addressed.

Download report

CWAG Newsletter – March 20242024-03-25T15:41:35+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – February 2024

This Update includes the following

  • Calls for Reform of Right to Buy

  • Current Consultations

  • Diary Dates

  • Recent Publications

Croft House

Calls for Reform of Right to Buy

The Conservative Government has signalled its ongoing commitment to the existing arrangements having recently confirmed that the maximum discounts available to tenants will be increased from April 2024 in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) figure of 6.7% to £102,400 outside London and £136,400 in London.

However, in this election year, the debate around the future of the Right to Buy scheme is coming into sharper focus with calls for fundamental reform now being actively debated. Two recent publications highlight growing calls for change.

LGA Right to Buy Position Statement

On 9th February the LGA issued a new position statement on the Right to Buy calling for fundamental reform.

Set within the context of current housing challenges with more than one million people on council housing waiting lists and 106,000 households living in temporary accommodation. LGA research highlights that there has been a net loss of 24,000 social homes each year since 1991 and if nothing is done a further 100,000 social homes will be sold by 2030 with only 43,000 replacements built.

The position statement argues that the continuing depletion of the available social housing stock through the RTB scheme needs to be addressed. Whilst stopping short of calling for a ban on RTB, the LGA would like to see the scheme fundamentally reformed with local flexibility for councils to shape the scheme so it works best for the local area.

Proposals include:

  • Allowing local authorities to set the discount levels at which homes can be purchased, including a possible discount of 0 per cent.
  • Increasing the tenancy qualification requirement from 3 to 15 years.
  • Allowing councils to retain 100% of receipts along with greater flexibility to combine with other funding and removal of restrictive time limits on using receipts.
  • Granting the cost floor indefinite protection for properties purchased through Right to Buy and allowing the cost floor to be increased by inflation ( specifically with an index based on construction cost inflation).
  • Possible complete exemption for newbuild properties and those that have been retrofit or improved.

UCL Direct Provision of housing: Fourth Research Report – January 2024

This latest report published in January by researchers from the Bartlett School of Planning considers current issues hindering local authority direct provision of housing. This is a wide ranging study covering different aspects of policy however the RTB policy in England is identified as a major factor undermining and disincentivising new council housing provision. There are two key recommendation on linked to RTB:

  • Right to Buy reform including either abolishing it altogether or limiting it, for example so it does not apply to newly built homes for at least 15 years.
  • The ability for authorities to retain 100% of Right to Buy receipts over a longer period of time and with greater flexibility over their use.
housing silhouette

Policy Consultations

There are currently three Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities open policy consultations impacting the the social housing sector.

The January Newsletter included an overview of proposals in the Awaab’s Law Consultation which includes strict time limits for social housing providers to address dangerous hazards in their properties. This consultation ends on 5th February 2024.

Consultation on reforms to social housing allocations

This consultation has been styled ‘British homes for British workers’ and proposes reform of the regulations governing new social housing allocations. The stated aim is to ‘crack down on rule breakers’ and ensure that ‘valuable and limited’ social housing is allocated fairly.

Most of these new tests apply to future applicants and people on waiting lists only; however, those relating to terrorism and anti- social behaviour aim to establish new grounds for evicting existing tenants in specific circumstances.

These proposals seek to ration available social housing by applying additional eligibility criteria but will do little to address the current housing shortage and the lack of new supply.

This consultation ends on 26th March 2024.

Download consultation document

New social housing eligibility tests proposed:

  • UK connection test – A requirement for social housing applicants to demonstrate a connection to the UK for at least 10 years.
  • Local connection test – Applicants must demonstrate a connection to a local area for at least two years before they can be allocated social housing.
  • Income test – This would set out a maximum threshold for household income which if exceeded would exclude the household from applying for social housing. The consultation does not specify what this threshold level should be but seeks views on what would be appropriate.
  • Anti-social behaviour test – People who have unspent convictions for certain criminal anti-social behaviour would be disqualified from social housing for a defined period of between 1 and 5 years. A ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy would apply for existing tenants anti-social behaviour convictions.
  • Terrorism test – Those with unspent convictions for terrorism offences could be disqualified from social housing eligibility.
  • Fraudulent declaration test – This would introduce a period of disqualification for those ‘knowingly or recklessly’ making false statements when applying for social housing.

Consultation on Competence and Conduct Standard for social housing

As part of the Government’s post Grenfell drive to improve standards in the social housing sector, the government is consulting on a proposed new direction to the Regulator of Social Housing.

The measures set out aim to ensure that those in senior housing management positions in the sector have appropriate professional qualifications.

It has been estimated that around 25,000 housing management staff will fall within the scope of these measures who will be expected to secure new qualifications. The implementation of such an extensive sector wide training programme has raised questions around the capacity of the training sector to deliver within such constrained timescales as well as how the programme will be funded.

There are also concerns around organisational impacts if staff are absent from their job roles to undertake their studies or possible staff retention issues if staff are expected to undertake training in their own time.

The consultation raises a number of other potential issues including the implications for staff retention and recruitment with the prospect of staff shortages and increasing costs. It is feared that older experienced staff may opt not to undertake the required training. There are also queries around precisely which roles are in scope and whether the measures will be applied to external consultants and specialist repairs contractors.

This consultation ends on 2nd April 2024.

Download consultation document

Key proposals

  • All senior housing managers and executives who spend a significant amount of their time on housing management (defined as 50% of their job role) will be required to have or be working towards an appropriate professional qualification.
  • The new arrangements will commence from April 2025 with a two-year transition period, at the end of which all affected staff must be either qualified or have commenced studying for their qualification.
  • Course content must be tailored towards social housing and include appropriate knowledge of law and policy, as well as practical service delivery and customer service skills.
  • The consultation makes provision for an extended 4-year transition period for small organisations (with fewer than 50 units) and allows for some flexibility around issues such as maternity leave and staff on long-term sick leave.
man studying with notebook and laptop

CWAG is planning to respond to these consultations, please send any comments on the consultations to the Policy Officer. 

Recent Publications

Financial distress in local authorities LUHC Select Committee Report (published 29/01/24)

This report looks at why councils are facing financial distress and struggling to maintain services, with particular pressures in social care, children’s services and homelessness. It sets out the challenges facing the next Government, regardless of political persuasion. A fundamental review of local authority funding and taxation will be required. Download Report 

The Provision of Floor Coverings in Social Housing – Learning Report 3: Landlord Perspectives – Altair (published January 2024)

Altair research report exploring the costs and benefits of landlords providing floor coverings in social housing. Download Report

Relationship of Equals – Housing Ombudsman Spotlight Report (published January 2024)

The latest report in the Housing Ombudsman Spotlight series focusses on attitudes, respect and rights. It examines what it means to be vulnerable in social housing and how landlords can better respond to the needs of vulnerable residents. The report also calls for a Royal Commission to create a long-term plan for social housing as current approaches are not working for residents with a vulnerability. Download Report

Quarterly Home Office Fire Safety Reform Bulletin. No 4 – February 2024

This bulletin provides information on the latest fire safety developments and links to recently published and updated guides.

Diary Dates

CWAG General Meeting – 27th February 2024 (10.00 -12.00)

The meeting will focus on Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) and preparing for the forthcoming changes to regulation. Speakers include Jonathan Cox from Housemark who will be discussing learning to date from TSMs, and Lucy Heath from Shropshire Council will be sharing impressions and feedback from the recent RSH pilot inspection.

Competence and Conduct Standard Consultation Roundtable – 6th March 2024 (10.00 -11.30)

The NFA has arranged a Teams /roundtable with DLUHC representatives to discuss the Competency and Conduct consultation. If any CWAG members are interested in attending, please contact the Policy Officer for further details.

CWAG Finance and Business Planning Meeting – 6th June 2024 (10.00 -13.00)

A follow up meeting date has been arranged with Steve Partridge from Savills – further details will be available nearer to the meeting date.

CWAG Newsletter – February 20242024-02-26T12:37:04+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – January 2024

This Update includes the following

  • The ALMO Model: first results from Tenant Satisfaction Measures

  • Consultation Awaab’s Law

  • Recent Publications

  • Diary Date – CWAG General Meeting

derbyhomes elderly homes

The ALMO Model: first results from Tenant Satisfaction Measures

A new report commissioned by the National Federation of ALMOs reviews initial TSM performance using data collected by Housemark during the first six months of surveys from April to September 2023. Data was provided by 19 ALMOs and comparisons made with data from 53 local authorities with direct management.

The analysis shows that at the median point ALMOs outperformed local authorities on all TSMs and housing management metrics analysed. They also perform better on value for money, with an average overall cost per property of £2537; this is £81 lower than the direct local authority management average.

The headline finding is that on average the better performance and higher tenant satisfaction delivered by an ALMO costs no more than direct delivery of housing services by a local authority. In many areas, the ALMO model costs less and offers better value for money.

Report Findings

Overall satisfaction

Whilst it should be noted that overall satisfaction is declining for all types of landlords – the data indicates that it has declined less for ALMOs than for local authorities generally. The TSM data so far shows that 76 per cent of ALMO tenants are satisfied with their landlord’s services overall, compared to the local authority median of 65 per cent. Housemark also looked back at STAR data for the past 5 years highlighting that overall satisfaction among ALMO tenants has been consistently higher – between six and 11 percentage points – compared to local authorities generally.

ladies with tablet/ipad

Read report summary available here

Repairs TSMs

ALMOs perform well in this area. On average, they complete a higher proportion of non-emergency repairs within target timescale at 91 per cent, compared to a local authority median of 85 per cent; and a higher percentage of emergency repairs within target timescale (99 per cent versus 95 per cent). Satisfaction with repairs is 12 percentage points higher.

Complaints handling

On average 88 per cent of stage one complaints and 97 per cent of stage two complaints are completed within the Ombudsman’s target timescales. This compares favourably with performance in directly managed local authority stock (74 per cent and 70 per cent). Average satisfaction with ALMOs‘ complaints handling is also 13 percentage points higher.

Respectful and helpful engagement

ALMOs achieve a higher level of satisfaction across all three TSMs in the tenant engagement category.

Neighbourhood Management

ALMOs score almost eight percentage points higher on making ‘a positive contribution to the neighbourhood’ than local authorities generally. They also score 11 percentage points higher for satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour.

Value for Money

ALMOs deliver better value for money across housing management, responsive repairs, void works, and major works services. The average cost per property for ALMO services is £2,537 compared to £2,618 for local authorities.

Awaab’s Law Consultation

The Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 included provisions for the introduction of Awaab’s Law which aims to protect residents from health and safety risks in their homes by requiring landlords to investigate and fix reported health hazards within specified timeframes. The consultation seeks views on how Awaab’s Law should be implemented, specifically regarding time scales for investigations and carrying out repairs.

The consultation proposes the introduction of a new legal obligation to investigate hazards within 14 calendar days with a requirement to start work on remedying identified hazards within 7 days. Where emergency works are identified, these must be actioned within 24 hours. If the property cannot be made safe within the specified timescales, the registered provider must offer to arrange for the occupant(s) to stay in suitable alternative accommodation until it is safe to return. These new rules will form part of a tenancy agreement, so that tenants can hold landlords to account by law if they fail to respond to issues and provide a decent home.

The consultation proposes that Awaab’s Law should take into account the 29 health and safety hazards set out in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) but must additionally take into account the vulnerabilities of those living in the household.

Hazards in scope are those that pose a significant risk to the health or safety of the actual residents of the property, therefore, identifying whether a repair meets the threshold of Awaab’s Law will not necessarily match current routine or emergency repair definitions. Where residents have vulnerabilities, routine repairs will potentially fall within the scope of Awaab’s Law.

The consultation sets out new higher expectations in terms of record keeping around repairs. There is also a new requirement to provide residents with a written summary of findings within 48 hours of the investigation setting out if a hazard was found along with details of the follow up response and timescales as well as how to contact the landlord with any queries.

Cost Implications

The consultation makes an assessment of the cost implications for landlords of implementing Awaab’s Law. It is assumed that for the most part implementation costs will be relatively low as any works required are not a new burden but reflect existing landlord responsibilities and therefore shouldn’t cost more than under current arrangements. In practice, the introduction of tight timescales and increased demand for some specialist contractors are likely to increase costs in some areas.

It is estimated that the cost of preparing and sending written summaries to residents following property inspections will cost local authority registered providers around £5.1m annually, but the assumption is that automation will significantly reduce this figure over time. In addition, a small one-off element of transition costs is identified relating to staff training and familiarisation with the new arrangements (amounting to a total of a total of £513,000 across the local authority sector overall).

This is an 8-week consultation closing on 5th March 2024.

housing silhouette

Recent Publications

Building Safety ebulletin: 15 January 2024 (govdelivery.com)

This regular bulletin provides updates on current building safety issues and developments within the Building Safety Regulator. This edition includes information on high rise registration and monitoring arrangements for the building control profession. There is also a list of on-line building safety webinars that are available to watch on demand.

Two Nations: The State of Poverty in the UK – Centre for Social Justice (December 2023)

This interim report considers the challenges involved in improving the lives of the poorest communities in the UK focussing on the root causes of poverty and the limitations of current social policy. It brings together evidence from over 250 frontline charities, social enterprises and local organisations working with people in the toughest situations.

Diary Date - CWAG General Meeting

The next CWAG General Meeting will we held on Teams on Tuesday 27th February 2024 (10.00 – 12.00). The meeting will focus on Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs)  and preparing for the forthcoming changes to regulation.

The programme so far includes the following:

  • Presentation from Jonathan Cox ( Director of Data and Business Intelligence at Housemark) who will be discussing learning to date from TSMs with a particular focus on councils with ALMOs.
  • CWAG Executive Member Lucy Heath will be sharing her experience and feedback from the RSH pilot inspection of Shropshire Council (and its ALMO) which took place as part of round 3 of the inspection pilot programme at the end of last year.

CWAG Newsletter – January 20242024-01-18T14:34:22+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – December 2023

This Update includes the following

  • Knowing our Homes Survey

  • CWAG Consultation Responses

  • Recent Publications

  • Diary Date

Knowing Our Homes  – Local Authority Housing Survey

The Knowing our Homes survey is part of a programme of work developed by the NHF in response to the Better Social Housing Review which aims to establish a shared, standardised approach for gathering and using information about the condition of social homes and about the residents who live in them. This should also help social landlords to meet new requirements emerging through the Consumer Standards which set higher expectations for how landlords gather and use information about their homes and their residents.

Although the Better Social Housing Review was initially focused on the housing association sector, the local authority sector has committed to support the work emerging from the review to make sure there is a shared approach across the whole social housing sector. The Local Government Association (LGA), Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH), National Federation of ALMOs (NFA), and Councils with ALMOs Group (CWAG) are all working together to achieve this and make sure the whole council housing sector is represented.

A survey was sent out to stock retaining local authorities, and local authorities with ALMOs in October 2023. This is the first stage of the work which identifies how local authorities are currently gathering and using data.  49 local authorities responded to the survey (around 30 per cent of local authorities with housing stock), managing around 599,000 social and affordable local authority homes across England (around 38 per cent of the total stock).

Snapshot of Survey Findings

  • Three quarters of respondents to our survey have made significant changes to the way they monitor and work to improve the condition of the homes they manage within the last year. This includes, for example:
    • Reviewing damp and mould policies and procedures, implementing training, creating new teams.
    • Changing stock condition programmes, for example moving to a 100% survey, reducing the length of the rolling survey or undertaking a full assessment of stock condition.
    • Reviewing and developing asset management strategies.
    • Investing in new asset management or property information management systems. Developing processes to cross-reference data sources (e.g. property archetype, repair and cases of damp and mould) to better direct resources and identify issues.
    • Reviewing processes for identifying stock condition between surveys, for example adding requirements to the gas servicing contract to identify property condition.
    • Increasing staffing resources for quality assurance, stock condition and data management.
    • Accessing funding for thermal improvement/ decarbonisation work to support quality of homes.
    • Introducing tenancy audits, or changes in frequency or type of audit.
CWAG Group Photo
  • The majority of respondent have – or are moving towards – a rolling stock condition survey where they survey 100 per cent of their homes. This will support them to the meet the requirements within the Regulator’s Consumer Standards to have ‘an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants.’ The information gathered as part of these surveys differs across respondents, but around 40 per cent gather information on energy efficiency of properties (e.g. RdSAP).
  • The majority of respondents report having a process for proactively checking the condition of homes between stock condition surveys. This includes, for example, through tenancy checks or audits, and asking staff who visit the home to report issues. One of the key areas of work for many is making sure IT systems can effectively record all the information about a home and the people who live in it, and that data quality is good. Around a third of respondents would recommend the IT or data systems they would use, suggesting that there is work to be done in this area.
  • Having a good knowledge of the people who live in homes is a key requirement in the new Consumer Standards; to make sure that services are tailored and equitably delivered. Nearly all respondents in our survey collect, store and retain data about tenants. This includes, for example, information on household make-up, relevant health issues or disabilities, and communication needs or preferences. Nine out of 10 respondents actively update the information they hold on tenants, for example after a repair or during a tenancy audit. Members are actively working on the processes that they use to make sure they can demonstrate they are equitably delivering services.
  • The collection of data on tenants is an area that members are working on, and where good practice sharing would be beneficial; particularly thinking about GDPR principles, how (and what) data is stored and kept up-to-date, and how it is used. We will continue to work with the National Housing Federation and their members to share good practice in this area.

CWAG Consultation Responses

Provision of information to tenants: Direction to the Social Housing Regulator on tenants’ rights and complaints

CWAG has responded to the DLUHC consultation on a new direction to the Social Housing Regulator   on tenants’ rights and complaints. Whilst we agree that landlords should be providing this information to their tenants, in our view the proposals duplicate arrangements already set out in the RSH Consumer Standards and Ombudsman Statutory Complaints Handling Code. Overlaying a further set of very similar requirements and additional reporting that duplicate these arrangements will add to the complexity, regulatory burden and costs whilst providing little in the way of additional or new information for tenants.

CWAG Consultation response

Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code 2023

CWAG also responded to the Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code consultation 2023. The new statutory Complaints Handling Code forms part of wider changes to social housing regulation set out in the Social Housing (Regulation)Act 2023. Whilst the code is broadly similar to the existing code, our consultation response flagged up some issues including changes to response times and the need for clarity around the interface of these arrangements with those of other regulators.

CWAG Consultation response

Recent Publications

ALMOs top half year local authority TSM results – Housemark research

An interesting piece of research by Housemark on behalf of the National Federation of ALMOs makes very positive reading for anyone interested in the effectiveness of the ALMO management model. ALMO performance against all 22 TSMs at the half-year point in September 2023 was favourable when compared to local authorities generally. In addition, the report also looked at the data for former ALMOs where management is now back ‘in house’ suggesting that ‘housing management performance settles into that less favourable cost and performance pattern of stock retained local authorities’.

viewpoint almos.org.uk

Housing Ombudsman Report – Insight on service charges and the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction – Published December 2023

This latest insight report considers complaints relating to service charges. The report sets out guidance around the complaints the Ombudsman might consider and those which are within the remit of the First Tier Tribunal or Tribunal and Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE).

Whilst the level and cost of service charges is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, the way the charge has been calculated would fall within the Ombudsman’s remit. The report highlights that the importance of ensuring charges are as set out in tenancy agreements and leases, as opposed to what it is assumed is in these agreements.

Other issues include fairness and transparency, ensure that any redress is applied to everyone affected, not just those who have been party to the complaint. Cases involving measures such as non-disclosure agreements or pressure on residents to sign revised agreements are highlighted as unacceptable.

Where residents raise complaints about the standard of service, the onus will be on the landlord to demonstrate that the standard was of satisfactory quality for example through evidence of spot checks and monitoring.

Insight Report July 2023 (housing-ombudsman.org.uk)

Housing Ombudsman - Complaint Handling Failure Orders July – September 2023 (Published November 2023)

Given the increasing use of Complaint Failure Orders (CFOs) by the Housing Ombudsman, this report examining cases between July and September 2023 provides useful insights into current issues and complaints handling weaknesses in the sector.

In the three months under review there were 51 CFOs issued, the highest number ever issued in a single quarter. Of these 38 (74.5%) were type 1 relating to unreasonable delays by the landlord in accepting or progressing a complaint. 12 cases (23.5%) were type 2 involving unreasonable delays in providing information to the Ombudsman and 2 cases (4%) involved a failure by the landlord to comply with membership obligations of the Ombudsman scheme. In the same period, 14 landlords failed to comply with the requirements set out in the issued CFO.

CHFO-report-Q2-23-24-FINAL.pdf (housing-ombudsman.org.uk)

Social Housing Partner Toolkit

This toolkit includes details of the latest phase in the Governments ‘Make things Right campaign which aims to ensure social housing tenants know their rights and how to make a complaint in terms of repairs, disabled adaptations and help with anti-social behaviour. The campaign seeks to address barriers which hold people back from raising issues with their landlord.

The ‘toolkit’ comprises a range of publicity materials and formats including posters, social media videos, leaflets, draft copy for use in newsletters and blogs as well as a briefing for use with staff working with people who live in social housing.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/656daade9462260721c56816/DLUHC_SocialHousing_PartnerToolKitDocument.pdf

Diary Date Reminder - Finance and Business Planning Workshop

Steve Partridge – Savills Director of Housing Consultancy will be leading this event for finance officers and others with an interest in HRA strategy and business planning. The event is a free event that is open to CWAG members. To book a place, contact the CWAG Policy Officer.

CWAG Newsletter – December 20232023-12-18T09:22:37+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – November 2023

This Update includes the following

  • Renters Reform Bill Update

  • CWAG Response – RSH Consultation on changes to the fees regime

  • Joint letter to the Building Safety Regulator

  • Diary Date – Annual General Meeting

  • Recent Publications

Renters Reform Bill Update

Government commitments to address issues in the private rented sector in England are facing further delays.

The Renters Reform Bill which was published in May 2023 included a number of measures set out in the 2022 White Paper ‘A fairer private rented sector’ as well as the 2019 Conservative Manifesto commitment to abolish Section 21 evictions in England. Although the legislation received its second reading in the House of Commons on 23rd October 2023, the ban on Section 21 evictions is likely to be significantly delayed as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced that the ban cannot proceed until reforms to the court system have been put in place.

The Government stance appears to be in response to intensive lobbying by the National Residents Landlord Association (NRLA) concerned that other measures in the legislation, which are intended to strengthen  landlords’ ability to evict tenants in breach of tenancy agreements, will be ineffective without legal reforms to speed up repossession hearings and tackle existing court backlogs.

In the meantime, the Renters Reform Bill will continue to be progressed and has now moved to the Committee Stage. An update on the Committee Stage is expected on 5th December 2023 but the legislative timetable beyond this is unclear. The Bill has been included in the legislative programme announced in the King’s Speech so will carry over into the next Parliamentary session.

It is possible that a number of other measures in the legislation will continue to be progressed in advance of the abolition of Section 21 evictions – for example arrangement allowing tenants the right to keep pets, proposals for a private rented sector Ombudsman and a mechanism for tenants to challenge unfair rent increases. However, tenure changes linked to the abolition of Section 21 are effectively stalled until improvements and reform of court processes have been implemented.

CWAG Response – RSH Consultation on changes to the fees regime

CWAG has submitted a response to the recent RSH consultation on fees. The consultation sets out proposals for a new charging regime to fully meet the costs of regulation as set out in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. The proposals involve levying a charge for each social home regulated and the fee rate for local authority landlords is estimated at between £7 and £8 per property.

The CWAG response highlighted concerns about the high level of fees proposed. These represent a significant additional financial burden on housing revenue account resources which will impact business plans and ultimately need to be funded from tenants rents. We also argue that there is a lack of transparency around how the fee level has been set, how it will be uplifted in the future and how value for money will be demonstrated.

CWAG Consultation Response

Joint letter to the Building Safety Regulator

CWAG has joined up with the National Federation of ALMOS (NFA) and Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) to raise concerns with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) around how complaints in high rise social housing will be handled as well as issues around the interface with the Housing Ombudsman Statutory Complaints Handling Code. As a group we are seeking a meeting to discuss concerns and clarify arrangements.

Read letter here.

Recent Publications

Sector Risk Profile, RSH – 14th November 2023

The RSH has published the 2023 Sector Risk Profile an annual overview of the main risks facing social housing providers. This year the report focusses on a number macro-economic risks and preparing for stronger consumer regulation.

The sector faces a challenging economic environment with persistently high inflation, a tight labour market, supply pressures and contractor failures and rental income constrained by the 7% cap in 1023/24.

The new regulatory regime from April next year requires an increased focus on the quality of social housing, and the services landlords provide to tenants. In preparing for these changes providers need to be ensuring up-to -date and robust tenant data that assesses the presence of serious hazards in tenant’s homes , including damp and mould.

Sector Risk Profile 2023

southend housing

Fire Safety Reform Bulletin No 3, Home Office – 6th November 2023

This Bulletin includes information on new requirements for Responsible Persons, feedback on the risk assessor survey and details of the new guide for responsible persons along with a summary of other available guidance.

Bulletin

New Homes Fact Sheets, Homes England – 2nd November 2023

Homes England has published a series of 10 fact sheets designed to support conversations with local communities about the need for new homes and development. Topics include how new homes are planned, including transport infrastructure and services such as schools and healthcare.

New Homes Facts Sheets and Capacity Analysis Tool launched – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

LGA Submission: Autumn Statement 2023

Ahead of the Autumn Statement next week, the LGA has set out the case for additional resources for councils facing unprecedented financial pressures. Councils are facing ongoing inflationary and pay pressures alongside spiking demand and market challenges in areas such as homelessness and temporary accommodation. Also, financial resilience is strained following a 27% real-terms reduction in core spending power since 2010/11.

Read submission here

RSH Social Housing Stock and Rents statistics 2022/23

The RSH has published the latest batch of statistics on social housing stock and rents in England. There are a number of reports available including a briefing on local authority housing stock.

2023_LARP-briefing-note_FINAL_V1.0_.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Housing Ombudsman Damp and Mould Update

Two years after the publication of its Spotlight Report on damp and mould ‘It’s not lifestyle’, the Housing Ombudsman has released an update on this area of complaints handling. Whilst the number of complaints relating to damp and mould has continued to rise, with 5,398 complaints in this category in 2022/23, this increase in part reflects landlords making it easier for tenants to report issues. The update includes a number of recent cases, both positive and negative. Key themes continue to include references by landlords to residents lifestyle and poor record keeping by landlords hampering responses.

Read Update

Diary Date – Finance and Business Planning Meeting – Thursday 18th January  2024

Steve Partridge – Savills Director of Housing Consultancy will be leading this event for finance officers and others with an interest in HRA strategy and business planning. The event is a free event that is open to CWAG members. To book a place, contact the CWAG Policy Officer.

CWAG Newsletter – November 20232023-11-16T14:24:32+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – October 2023

This Update includes the following

  • CWAG Annual General Meeting

  • Regulator announces plans for a national tenants’ survey

  • Consultation – Awaab’s Law – Direction to the Social Housing Regulator

  • Housing Ombudsman Changes

  • Recent Publications

southend housing

CWAG Annual General Meeting

This year’s AGM focussed on preparing councils for the regulatory and professionalisation changes introduced by the Social Housing Regulation Act.

Lydia Dlaboha from the Housing Quality Network introduced the session with a topical discussion on ‘Getting ready for inspection and the new regime’

Whilst preparations for most councils are well under way it was useful to discuss some of the issues and challenges specific to councils with ALMOs. With a much greater spotlight on the council as landlord and on elected members, new arrangements need to be put in place whilst not undermining the work of ALMO Boards.

Councils will need to be able to have assurance that they are complying with the consumer standards. This requires that councils have good data on their homes and the tenants who live in them as well as ensuring that services are developed with the input of tenants.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) are a key tool in the new arrangements and landlords need to drill down into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of what TSMs are telling them – in particular identifying whether there are specific concerns in certain communities and demographics. The Regulator will be keen to understand how landlords are using TSM data and what plans they have for improvement.

The discussion also picked up the potential for tensions where councillors make decisions based on wider objectives that are not necessarily aligned with the interests specific to social tenants. In these circumstances much will depend on the narrative and how the council presents its case.

Our second speaker Charlotte Hilliard from the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) spoke on the topic Driving Professionalism in social housing: Implementing the Conduct and Competence Standards.  This set out the background to the current professionalisation agenda alongside current thinking around what the new regulations are likely to mean in practice.

The Social Housing Regulation Bill was amended at a late stage to introduce measures to enable the Regulator of Social Housing to introduce new Competence and Conduct Standards, which will require landlords to ensure that all staff have the appropriate behaviours, skills, knowledge, and experience. Linked to this senior housing managers and senior housing executives (defined in the Act) will be required to have, or be working towards, a suitable housing management qualification.

The key criteria determining which job roles will be deemed to be in covered by the legislation are that:

  • The post is concerned with managing a service in a customer facing role
  • The subject properties are regulated by the RSH

Relevant staff who are not already qualified will be required to enrol on and complete an appropriate qualification within specified timescales, which will be set out following consultation.

The discussion at the AGM highlighted differences in the way people are currently interpreting the legislation with implications for exactly which posts are likely to fall within the scope of the legislation. These issues will need to be further explored and clarified as detail arrangements are worked up. A two-stage consultation process will take place prior to the arrangements coming into force:

  • Stage 1 – Statutory consultation on a draft Direction to the Regulator – this will take place over the next few months,
  • Stage 2 – Once formally directed the Regulator will consult on its approach to setting the requirements within the standards.

Regulator announces plans for a national tenants’ survey

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has announced that it plans to carry out a National Tenant Survey to better understand how satisfied social housing tenants are with their landlord’s service.

The move coincides with work all social landlords are currently undertaking to collect Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) from their tenants. The RSH’s one-off tenant survey will be in addition to landlords’ TSM surveys and will use the same questions.

The aim is to provide the RSH with a robust and independent benchmark when reviewing TSM results submitted by individual landlords. The survey will also provide information about levels of satisfaction among different groups of tenants.

It is hoped that the RSH National Tenants Survey will provide deeper understanding and additional insights on tenant satisfaction levels throughout the sector.

ladies with tablet/ipad

Consultation – Awaab’s Law – Direction to the Social Housing Regulator

This autumn sees a series of consultations linked to implementing measures in the Social Housing Regulation Act. The latest relates to the section of the legislation known as Awaab’s Law which introduced new requirements around the information social landlords will be required to provide to their tenants.

As a first stage the government is consulting on a new Direction requiring the Social Housing Regulator to set standards for the provision of information to tenants in the following areas:

  • making complaints
  • tenants’ rights
  • relevant regulatory requirements

The government has carried out an initial assessment of the likely costs involved which are estimated at around £1.8m per year for local authority landlords. The consultation indicates that new burdens funding will be available to local authorities to cover this. This is an 8-week consultation ending on 22nd November 2023.

Following this consultation, the Regulator will formally consult on its proposals for implementing the Direction.The government is also planning to consult in the near future on directions relating to the quality of accommodation, access to information, tenure and competency and conduct.

Housing Ombudsman Changes

The Housing Ombudsman has gained considerable new powers as part of changes set out in the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023. This expanded authority enables the Ombudsman to require landlords to go beyond the scope of individual complaints and seek to address wider issues.

Following approval by the Secretary of State of a revised Scheme, the Housing Ombudsman can order a landlord to evaluate a particular policy or practice to prevent service failure being repeated. Previously, these types of orders would have only been recommendations, which the landlord was not duty bound to act upon.

The Complaints Handling Code will also become a statutory scheme and the Ombudsman is currently consulting on this. Whilst no major changes are proposed to the Code itself, there is a new duty for the Housing Ombudsman to monitor compliance. The consultation outlines proposals for wider compliance monitoring including the use of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs). The Ombudsman will also be able to intervene with a landlord on the Code even where a complaint has not been received.

The consultation closes on 23rd November 2023 with the aim is for the Code to become statutory from 1 April 2024.

Recent Publications

Tenant Satisfaction Measures – Frequently asked questions – September 2023

This document brings together examples of specific recurring queries sent to the Regulator as providers begin to collect their first set of TSM data for 2023/24. It is a fairly technical document intended for practitioners involved interpreting the guidance and collecting the data.  Download document 

New Fire Safety Guidance

New fire safety laws came into force on 1st October 2023 and the home office has published new fire safety guidance as follows:

Design For All – A Place to Call Home

This University of London report by a panel of academics and researchers including from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust proposes a radical and transformative national housing plan to address the UK’s housing crisis. The report sets out the wider economic benefits of building more social and affordable housing. Modelling a scenario around building 72,000 additional social and affordable homes per year which could save the government an estimated £1.5 billion per year whilst delivering major social and economic benefits. Download report

CWAG Newsletter – October 20232023-10-12T11:57:33+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – September 2023

This Update includes the following

  • ‘Knowing our Homes’ Project and Survey

  • Regulator of Social Housing launches fees consultation

  • Diary Dates

  • Recent Publications

derbyhomes

‘Knowing our Homes’ Project and Survey

CWAG is joining up with other partners across social housing in a new project ‘Knowing our Homes’. This is a programme of work with origins in the ‘Better Social Housing Review’ commissioned jointly by the National Housing Federation (NHF) and Chartered Institute of Housing.

Although the Better Social Housing Review was focused on the housing association sector, the local authority sector has committed to support the work emerging from the review to ensure there is a shared approach across the whole social housing sector. The Local Government Association (LGA), Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH), National Federation of ALMOs (NFA), and Councils with ALMOs Group (CWAG) are all working together to achieve this and make sure the whole council housing sector is represented.

The project aims to establish a shared, standardised approach for gathering and using information about the condition of social homes and about the residents who live in them. This will help social landlords to meet new requirements emerging through the Consumer Standards which set higher expectations for how landlords gather and use information about their homes and their residents.

The first stage of this work is a baseline survey to identify how social landlords are currently gathering and using data. From this, we will look to develop proposals to address existing challenges and build on good practice.

This is intended to be a joint survey with both the council and ALMO contributing to the response. It is important that the survey achieves a good return rate, and in the case of councils and ALMOs, we need to ensure that only one return per landlord is received. As most of the data is currently held by the ALMO, the survey link has been sent to the ALMO with the intention that they will work jointly with the council on this. Analysis of survey returns will be administered by the NFA on behalf of the LGA, ARCH and CWAG.

The survey return date is Wednesday 18th October 2023.

If you would like more details about the ‘Knowing our Homes’ project, survey or a copy of the survey questions please contact the Policy Officer.

Regulator of Social Housing launches fees consultation

The Social Housing Regulation Act, which received Royal Assent in July 2023, conferred new fee-charging powers to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) to ensure it can deliver its expanded role.

This consultation follows an announcement by government that from 1st July 2024 social landlords will need to pay the full costs of their regulation.

The Regulator is currently funded through a combination of fees and government grants; proactive regulation of the economic standards is funded by fees, whilst other activities including enforcement and reactive consumer regulation are covered by government grant.

The RSH is now gearing up for the biggest change to social housing regulation in a decade, with regular inspections of larger social landlords (including councils). The proposed changes to RSH’s fee charging arrangements are designed ensure there are sufficient resources, skills and capacity to deliver proactive consumer regulation whilst removing the requirement for direct government grant support.

For local authority landlords this represents a major change as the sector will fall within these revised charging arrangements and will be required to pay fees for the first time.

The consultation relates to the principles and arrangements for charging rather than the exact level of fees that will be levied. However, the consultation does include modelling and estimates around a proposed fee level of between £7 and £8 per unit for local authorities with more than 1000 homes. Local authorities with less than 1000 homes will be exempt from the fee arrangements, the fee rate proposed is being zero.

There is a differential between the proposed fee level for councils and housing associations which is intended to reflect the additional economic regulation applicable to housing associations.

A key principle set out is that private registered providers do not pay for the regulation of local authority registered providers, or the visa versa.

This is an eight week consultation which ends on Tuesday 31st October 2023.

Key Proposals:

  • To increase the fees social landlords pay, to recover the full cost of regulation including the expanded consumer remit.
  • Continue to charge larger social landlords for each social home they provide. A flat rate fee will apply to smaller housing associations with fewer than 1000 units.
  • Start charging fees to councils owning over 1,000 homes.
  • Charge organisations when they apply to become registered social landlords (instead of the current approach where landlords pay fees after they have successfully registered).
housing silhouette

Diary Dates

Annual General Meeting

CWAG Annual General Meeting – Thursday 28th September 2023.

This year our AGM speakers will focus on the implementation of the Social Housing Regulation Act, in particular preparing for the new regulatory arrangements and the professionalisation changes introduced by the legislation.

Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy Chief Executive HQN will be discussing how councils can prepare for consumer regulation whilst Charlotte Hilliard who is the DLUHC lead on professionalisation and anti-social behaviour will be speaking on Driving Professionalism in Social Housing.

Come along and support your AGM

Tpas Tenant Engagement Workshop – Thursday 12th October 2023

Tenant engagement is a key element in the new regulatory arrangements and as part of our preparations we have teamed up with Tpas to organise a workshop to consider key issues for CWAG members.

In this session Caritas Charles and Clare Powell, from the Tpas Policy and Insights team, will take us though the Consumer Regulation proposals tenant voice with a particular focus on the implications and issues for councils with ALMOs.

As the leading tenant engagement organisation Tpas have been heavily involved over the last few years on the development of these standards and also have their own accreditation that is a robust assessment of an organisations engagement culture, policies and outcomes.

Caritas and Clare will give a presentation with an overview of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act with a lens of what CWAG members should be focused on and prepared for. We will then open up to a Q&A.

A highly informative and practical session.

To book places contact the Policy Officer.

Recent Publications

New government guidance ‘Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home’ Sept 2023

At the time of the inquest into the tragic death of Awaak Ishak the government made a commitment to publish new guidance for private and social landlords. This guidance has now been published and includes the following:

  • An overview of the potential physical and mental health effects of living in a home with damp and mould, as well as information about groups that are particularly vulnerable to more severe health impacts.
  • Details of relevant regulation and the legal responsibilities of landlords in relation to damp and mould in homes in England.
  • Recommendations on how landlords should respond to reports of damp and mould.
  • Suggestions on how to reduce the likelihood of damp and mould developing in homes

Download guidance

Fire Safety Reform Programme Update

This is the second update on the Home Office’s fire safety reform programme. This update covers changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 that will be coming into force on 1st October 2023. It includes information on monitoring the impact of reforms to-date as well as details and links to current published guides.

Bi Monthly Fire Safety Reform Bulletin no2 (updated).pdf

CWAG Newsletter – September 20232023-09-18T13:25:08+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – August 2023

This Update includes the following

  • Regulator consults on new Consumer Standards

  • Regulator publishes annual review of consumer regulation

  • Diary Date – CWAG Annual General Meeting

  • Recent Publications

Burton Crescent Houses

Regulator Consults on new Consumer Standards

The Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 21st July 2023 paving the way for significant changes including enhanced consumer regulation of social housing. As expected, following the passage of the legislation, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has launched its consultation on the proposed new consumer standards that will underpin the regulation of the sector from April 2024.

The four new consumer standards proposed are:

  • The Safety and Quality Standard
  • The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard
  • The Neighbourhood and Community Standard
  • The Tenancy Standard

These new standards reflect the RSH’s expanded consumer regulation objective which now includes safety, transparency, and energy efficiency. Changes will strengthen the accountability of landlords for ensuring the quality and safety of their homes as well as driving greater landlord accountability to their tenants. There is also a much greater focus on transparency, organisational culture and giving tenants greater power to hold landlords to account.

The consultation will run for 12 weeks ending on Tuesday 17th October 2023

Download consultation document

Overview of the proposed new standards

1. Safety and Quality Standard

  • Replaces the existing Home Standard with a broader focus that explicitly includes safety.
  • Landlords must have accurate up-to-date stock condition information and ensure their homes comply with ‘all relevant requirements’. This will require detailed knowledge based on a physical inspection of all homes at an individual property level.
  • Properties must be maintained to at least the Decent Homes Standard (or its replacement) with effective systems to identify and tackle any non-decency where it occurs.
  • Timescales will be introduced for acting on health and safety assessments.
  • On repairs, maintenance, and planned improvement programmes there will be a greater emphasis on the outcome for tenants. Services must be ‘effective, efficient and timely.’
  • On adaptations there is an expectation that registered providers assist tenants seeking adaptations to access appropriate services, with the objective of improving outcomes for tenants.

2.Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard

  •  This aims to remove barriers for tenants in accessing their landlord and its services. It includes explicit requirements to treat tenants with fairness and respect so they can access services, make complaints, influence decision making and hold the landlord to account.
  • Landlords must consider tenants’ diverse needs, using relevant information and data to inform and adapt their services, ensuring fair access to services and equitable outcomes for all tenants.
  • There should be a number of routes and meaningful opportunities for tenants to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies and services.
  • Landlords need to make effective use of the information they get from engagement, taking tenants views into account in their decision making.
  • Landlords must identify a dedicated person responsible for complying with the consumer standards.
  • Where a significant change in management arrangements is proposed, the landlord must consult meaningfully with tenants on the actual or potential advantages and disadvantages, including costs, in both the immediate and longer-term.

3. Neighbourhood and Community Standard

  • Sets out expectations in relation to ‘shared spaces’.
  • Landlords are expected to work co-operatively with other organisations to resolve issues affecting the upkeep and safety of neighbourhoods in which tenants live.
  • Landlords are required to have set out their approach to deterring and tackling hate crime incidents.
  • Landlords are required to have clear policies to support tenants affected by anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse, working with other agencies as appropriate.

4. Tenancy Standard

  • Sets out requirements on lettings, tenancy sustainment and evictions. Arrangements must be fair and transparent throughout.
  • Registered providers are expected to assist local authorities to meet homelessness duties, e.g. nomination agreement obligations.
  • Adapted homes should be allocated to meet needs compatible with the purpose of the housing.
  • Providers should also have policies to address under-occupation and overcrowding.
  • Explicit obligation to prevent and tackle tenancy fraud.
  • The current requirement to minimise the time a property is vacant between lettings is removed as this is primarily an economic issue – now the greater focus is on fairness and transparency.

Regulator publishes Annual Review of Consumer Regulation

The RSH has published its annual ’Consumer Regulation Review’ for 2022/23. This sets out key learning and case studies from the Regulator’s consumer regulation casework over the past year.

Issues around local authority compliance are specifically highlighted this year, as ten of the thirteen registered providers who breached the consumer standards were local authorities.

Cases involved the ‘Big Six’ Health and Safety issues including the following:

  • Authorities that didn’t have the data required to provide assurance that they were compliant and therefore keeping tenants safe.
  • Authorities with significant backlogs in carrying out vital safety checks.
  • Failure to comply with legal requirements in respect of fire safety, either by failing to complete the relevant inspections and assessments or failing to complete follow-on remedial works.
  • For the first time in a number of years there were landlords who were failing to meet gas safety requirements despite these regulations having been in place for over 20 years.

The report and case studies highlight the importance of councillors and other senior leaders understanding their core landlord responsibilities. Regardless of management arrangements landlords must take responsibility for ensuring they are fully compliant with regulatory requirements and have mechanisms in place to identify and tackle under-performance.

Read the Report

Key issues highlighted by the Regulator from it’s recent casework:

  • Landlords must maintain a tight grip on the quality of the homes they manage
  • Local authorities must act now to ensure compliance with the consumer standards
  • Effective tenant engagement is fundamental to meeting the requirements of the consumer standards
  • Meeting statutory health and safety requirements, including landlord gas safety requirements, remains an area of regulatory concern
housing silhouette
Annual General Meeting

Diary Date :CWAG Annual General Meeting

This year the CWAG Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday 28th September 2023. The meeting will take place over Teams. Please note the date in your diary.

The formal business of the AGM involves electing representatives of the Executive Group as well as reviewing the group’s finances and operating arrangements and Terms of Reference.

We are currently putting together the programme which will include presentations and discussion around regulatory changes and the professionalisation agenda.

CWAG Work Programme Review

As part of preparations for the CWAG Annual General Meeting, CWAG Executive Group will be reviewing and updating the CWAG work programme to reflect priorities for the next 12 months. The updated work-programme will then be considered by the membership at the AGM.

We are keen to have members’ views and suggestions to inform this exercise.  If you have any suggestions or would like to contribute to the work-programme review, please contact the Policy Officer.

Recent Publications

On the Edge – Cost-of-living findings from the council sector – Joint NFA / ARCH Report – 2nd August 2023

This latest joint NFA / ARCH survey of the income collection and welfare benefits issues facing councils highlights significant rises in rent arrears over the past year. In looking to understand the drivers of current trends, the report identifies the impact of severe inflationary pressures which impact disproportionately on the poorest households as well as a welfare system that isn’t for purpose. The system of Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) is also under increasing strain with reducing resources and increasing numbers requiring assistance.

Read Report

English Housing Survey (EHS) 2021/22 – Energy Report – Published by DLUHC – July 2023

This latest update survey of peoples housing circumstances is one of the longest running national surveys providing data back to 1967. This report focusses on energy efficiency and provides an overview by tenure, dwelling type and household characteristics. It includes information on different heating systems and controls, the methods of payment used by households to pay for their energy as well as the cost involved in uprating homes to Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) band C. There is also an analysis of working from home patterns by income and tenure.

Read Report

CWAG Newsletter – August 20232023-08-02T13:20:23+00:00

CWAG Newsletter – July 2023

Welbury Gardens

This Update includes the following

  • Learning from the First Round of Consumer Regulation Inspection Pilots

  • Homes England announces changes to funding rules.

  • Social Housing (Regulation) Bill Update

  • Recent Publications

  • Diary Date – Annual General Meeting

Learning from the First Round of Consumer Regulation Inspection Pilots

Many CWAG members attended the recent NFA webinar where we were able to hear directly from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), Eastbourne Council and their ALMO Eastbourne Homes about the experience and learning from the participation in the first round of Consumer Regulation Pilot inspections.

There was plenty of advice for those preparing for the new regime, notable was the ‘crumbs of comfort’ message from Richard Tomkinson from Lewis and Eastbourne councils who indicated the inspection had been a ‘generally positive experience’ and very different from the Audit Commission inspections of the past. However, he did caveat this with details of the very extensive preparatory work both the Council and ALMO have undertaken, with virtually every aspect of the service having been subject to detailed scrutiny and review since the 2018 Social Housing Green Paper .

Angela Holden, RSH Assistant Director, set out some key lessons from the pilot inspection programme and recent casework, signposting key areas landlords need to focus on in preparing for proactive consumer regulation and inspection.

Inspections will be tailored and specific to each organisation, focussing on key risks identified from a range of different sources such as the document review, Tenant Satisfaction Measures and Ombudsman complaints. There will be an explicit focus on resident safety, transparency, accountability, and service outcomes for tenants.

Tenants voice and accountability

The Regulator is particularly keen to understand how an organisation hears the voice of its tenants and inspectors will seek to engage directly with tenants using a variety of formats.

Questions:

  • How do you evidence that as an organisation you hear the tenants voice?
  • Does the organisation respond to tenant concerns and do tenants have confidence the organisation will respond appropriately when issues are raised?
  • Are there differential satisfaction rates between different areas and demographics and how is the landlord responding?

Governance arrangements

Whilst it is the council as landlord that has responsibility for performance, the Regulator will be seeking to understand the chain of governance and where key responsibilities sit, and particularly whether the arrangements enable the organisation to respond to early warnings when things are going wrong.

The Regulator will be keen to review that arrangements and mechanisms are in place to ensure the oversight of contractors and engagement with tenants and that systems deliver transparency when things are going wrong.

In terms of ALMO involvement with inspections, the Regulator will focus on how operational decisions are made which may include attendance at the ALMO Board.

Key Question:

  • How do you know that key outcomes and compliance are actually being achieved?

Data and Systems

The Regulator will be looking for evidence of challenge to ensure that systems and processes are robust and able to deal with non-standard issues and stresses. Inspections will focus on outcomes and assurance and how these are evidenced, for example, can the landlord evidence compliance with key policies and legislation. Good quality data is vital.

Following recent work on the extent of disrepair, damp and mould in the stock, there is likely to be a particular focus on stock condition and whether the landlord has relevant and up to date data to understand and plan for the investment priorities of the stock. Further guidance on stock condition surveys and requirement is planned as part of the new consumer standards.

Questions

  • What arrangements are in place to assurance test key data, record keeping arrangements and protocols?
  • Are systems and processes fit for purpose?
  • Is key data readily available to evidence service outcomes, investment priorities, complaints handling etc?
southend housing

Homes England announces changes to funding rules.

On 27th June 2023 Homes England announced changes to the Affordable Homes Programme 2021 -26 to allow funding of replacement homes alongside new affordable homes, as part of wider estate regeneration plans.

The change will allow grant funding to be used to replace outdated and substandard homes as part of estate renewal projects, an important step towards delivering improvements in the quality of accommodation and energy efficiency.

According to Peter Denton, Chief Executive of Homes England this change ‘is a real opportunity to accelerate the regeneration of social housing and help level up communities across the country’.

The change will come into effect immediately.

Further details

Social Housing (Regulation) Bill Update

The Social Housing (Regulation) Bill is now approaching the end of its legislative journey.

The Bill received its 3rd Reading in the House of Lords on 27th June 2023. This resulted in the Lords putting forward an alternative wording for the professionalisation amendment. The new version seeks to clarify that the professionalisation requirements set out in the Bill will also apply to managing agents (and therefore to ALMOs). Ensuring that the wording achieves the anticipated outcomes and doesn’t inadvertently ‘catch’ other roles and post holders is a key issue. According to government estimates, around 25,000 housing managers will be impacted by the change.

The Bill has therefore entered a process known as ‘ping pong’ where it is passed rapidly back and forth between the House of Commons and House of Lords until agreement on the exact wording is achieved.

Following this the Bill will move forward for Royal Assent.

Burton Crescent Houses

Recent Publications

Damp and Mould in Social Housing – Learning the Lessons (June 2023)

This report by the Regulator of Social Housing draws on the survey work carried out following the coroner’s report into the tragic death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale.

The report sets out how social landlords are approaching the tackling of damp and mould in their tenants’ homes and highlights the features of the strongest and weakest approaches, so that landlords can learn lessons from others in the sector.

The key findings are:

  • Better performing landlords manage their data well. They have accurate and up-to-date information about tenants’ homes, and they use it to find and resolve problems proactively.
  • Strong oversight from boards or councillors is essential. They should gain assurance that landlord management teams are responding effectively when tenants raise concerns.
  • Some boards and councillors had limited oversight of the condition of tenants’ homes, and in some cases they didn’t have specific processes for identifying and tackling damp and mould.

Download report

 English Housing Survey: local authority housing stock condition modelling (June 2023)

These statistics from the English Housing Survey provide sub-regional estimates of housing stock condition for the first time ( covering Decent Homes and HHSRS Category 1 hazards)

The paper provides estimates by local authority area of the number and proportion of occupied homes that are deemed non decent according to the DH Standard / or unsafe due to a Category 1 hazard (HHSRS) by tenure and dwelling type.

This is modelling data and therefore aimed at highlighting wider trends and issues rather than as a specific tool for policy making at a local level. It does however show local authorities where housing quality might be poorer/ worse than average and how quality might vary by tenure and dwelling type.

The data is presented as a series of colour coded maps.

Further Details

Better Places – A Matrix for Measuring and Delivering Placemaking Quality (June 2023)

This Policy Exchange Report follows up on ideas in the 2020 report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission ‘Living with Beauty: promoting health, wellbeing and sustainable growth’ which was endorsed by government. It proposes a new tool or Placemaking Matrix, that can be used to score the placemaking characteristics and qualities of proposed and existing developments. The report suggest that the tool could be used when determining planning permission, providing a quantifiable baseline measurement of placemaking features that are often difficult to capture early in the development process. The underlying objective is to improve housing quality and create better places.

Download report

Why we need a long-term plan for housing – National Housing Federation (June 2023)

This NHF report sets out the case for a long-term plan to end the housing crisis and how this would improve the health, income and life chances of millions of people and drive economic growth, jobs, and prosperity. The aim is to challenge all political parties when setting out their priorities for the General Election next year to commit to a long-term and measurable plan to tackle the housing crisis and deliver decent, affordable housing.

Download Report

Annual General Meeting

Diary Date – CWAG Annual General Meeting

The CWAG AGM will take place over Teams on Thursday 28th September 2023 (10.00 – 12.00). Further details will be circulated shortly.

CWAG Newsletter – July 20232023-07-04T10:26:40+00:00

Privacy | Website Terms | Accessibility | CWAG All Rights Reserved | Site by: Blue Soft

© Copyright 2024

This website uses cookies and third party services. Ok
Go to Top