This Update includes the following
Social Housing Complaints – ‘Make Things Right’ Campaign
The Government has launched a new publicity campaign to raise awareness amongst social housing tenants about how to complain about poor housing conditions and disrepair.
The campaign features an advertising campaign on local radio and digital channels as well as social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with content available in six languages. The campaign will also fund training for Citizens Advice staff in two pilot areas (London and the North West) so they can more effectively support residents who have issues with disrepair and poor quality housing.
The campaign website Social Housing Complaints – Make Things Right signposts tenants through the complaints process, explaining the different stages, and what to expect from their landlord in response. If having made a complaint using the landlord’s complaints process, the issue has not been satisfactorily resolved, there is advice on escalating the complaint to the Social Housing Ombudsman.
For landlords there is a comms toolkit and other resources that can be accessed via the GOV.UK website.
Social Housing Regulation Bill – Progress Update
The Bill will provide the legal basis for implementing measures in the 2020 Social Housing White Paper. The intention is to empower residents, provide greater redress, better regulation and improve the quality of social housing. By strengthening the regulatory regime for social housing, the Bill aims to ensure landlords are held to account for their performance and focus more effectively on addressing the needs and concerns of tenants.
The Bill started out in the House of Lords in June last year, completing first and second readings in the House of Commons by November 2022. The Bill has now reached its third reading in the House of Commons (having already completed its third reading in the Lords). At this stage no further amendments can be made to the Bill. The final stage of the legislative process will see the Bill returned to the Lords for a final debate and consideration of amendments. Royal Assent should follow shortly after this and is likely before the Easter recess.
Important amendments added to the Bill:
Awaab’s Law
On 9 February 2023, the Secretary Of State introduced an amendment known as ‘Awaab’s Law’, which will require landlords to investigate and fix damp and mould in their properties within specified timeframes. A consultation will be held later this year to set the timeframes within which landlords will have to investigate hazards and make repairs.
Professionalisation
The Bill will introduce new rules intended to protect residents and raise standards in the sector. Managers in the social housing sector will in future be required to have a minimum set of professional qualifications.
Amendment 47 requires the regulator to set out professional standards ensuring that those with management responsibilities within the social housing sector have, or are working towards getting, professional qualifications.
The change is intended to bring social housing into closer alignment with other sectors such as social work, teaching and health.
Complaints and the Housing Ombudsman
The Bill identifies a new responsibility on the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) to set standards for providers on the handling of complaints. In addition, the Housing Ombudsman will be granted powers to issue and publish guidance on good practice in the sector.
Savills RTB Research highlights scale of replacement shortfall
A recent report by Savills, commissioned by the Local Government Association, ARCH and the NFA has highlighted the urgent need to look again at the current Right to Buy scheme and in particular the introduction of more proportionate regionally sensitive discounts.
The volume of RTB sales increased significantly after discounts were increased in 2012 and replacement agreements have consistently failed to match losses. The notion of ‘one for one’ replacement has not been delivered anywhere in the country.
The data highlights that in many cases discounts have been at a level in excess of what was needed to enable the tenant to afford to buy and in some cases the discount was significantly more than the rent paid whilst they were council tenants.
The report also flags up major regional differences with disproportionate negative impacts on authorities in lower value areas in the North and Midlands where net stock losses are higher and the replacement rate lower. A key factor is the relationship between the level of receipts and replacement costs – only 4 authorities in the whole of the north and midlands regions collect receipts that are in excess of 30% of replacement costs.
Modelling suggests that under current arrangements projected sales are likely to be in the region of 100,000 properties between 2021 and 2030, whilst total replacements are unlikely to exceed 43,000, representing a net stock loss of 3.61% across the country for this period. As a consequence, the RTB scheme is effectively subsidising one household’s home ownership over another’s access to social housing.
The report makes a number of policy suggestions including:
- Introducing a regional approach to setting discount rates – evidence suggests discounts in the north, and in many parts of the midlands, are higher than required to achieve the kind of take up the government seeks through the RTB scheme.
- Starting minimum discounts at a lower rate which reflects the amount of time the tenant has rented the property (or for newer properties since the property has been built) would offer improved value for money and a better match with the original objectives of the RTB scheme.
- The automatic annual CPI uplift of discount rates should be reconsidered as it is inconsistent with the current falling housing market and likely to cause further distortions.
- RTB properties should be reserved for home ownership. Purchasers should covenant to live in the property as a home owner and on resale the property should be offered first to the local authority.
- There is a strong case for allowing the cost floor to be increased by inflation, specifically linked to an index based on construction cost inflation, in order to ensure that the cost floor mechanism serves its purpose.
The full report is available on request from the LGA – see LGA website
CWAG Client Officer Group
The group met on 6th March 2023 to discuss issues relating to the client role and how councils are preparing for changes to regulation. The meeting included a presentation and case study from Shropshire Council regarding the work currently underway to update monitoring and performance management arrangements in preparation for enhanced consumer regulation.
Further meetings are planned as the new regulatory arrangements are rolled out. If you would like further information about the group and future meetings, please contact the Policy Officer.
