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You can help shape the future of consumer regulation
Ahead of the Regulator of Social Housing’s consumer regulation review and the government’s Social Housing Green Paper, Simon Dow urges the sector to engage with the debate
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) will shortly be publishing our annual consumer regulation review and I thought it might be helpful if I explained some of the context to this year’s edition.
The consumer regulation review has always been one of our key publications and in the light of the Grenfell Tower tragedy we are clear that it has become even more important for landlords to carefully consider the issues it highlights.
As in previous editions, this year’s review includes cases where a small number of providers failed to keep on top of a range of health and safety issues and other consumer standards.
We report these as we have had extensive feedback that doing so helps the sector learn lessons about the things that can go wrong.
As you will know, ministers have promised us a Social Housing Green Paper in the next few weeks. Given the context into which it is being published, the consumer regulation review will be an even more important document than usual and so we think it is timely to reflect on some of the things we see in our current regulation of the sector.
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Our experience is that, by and large, providers of social housing do a good job. They don’t need the regulator to tell them to do their utmost to ensure that their homes are safe, to engage their tenants in decisions about the way their homes are managed and to respond promptly and effectively to concerns raised by their tenants.
As Fiona MacGregor, executive director of regulation at the RSH, said at Housing 2018, our expectation is that you should do this anyway without any prompting from us, because this is both the bedrock of being a good social landlord and this is what your residents reasonably expect and trust you to deliver.
However, in a small number of cases – and it is a small number – we have to deal with providers that fail to consistently deliver these fundamentals of good social housing management.
Sometimes this is because boards have simply not paid enough attention to checking that their core housing management service is working well.
“In a small number of cases we have to deal with providers that fail to consistently deliver these fundamentals of good social housing management.”
In other cases, the internal control framework has failed to give the board the quality of assurances needed.
In a few worrying cases, both these failings occur. Evidence of this is in some of the regulatory notices we have issued, and hopefully the consumer regulation review should help boards and councillors review their services.
It is entirely right that our regulatory responsibilities encompass these issues and that meeting residents’ expectations is seen as simply part of being a good landlord. But I would question if, now, that is really all that is required for you and us to command the confidence of your residents, government, your other stakeholders and indeed the wider public.
Even if this once was the case, I would argue that post-Grenfell the bar has been raised.
“You got on the front foot with developing your own metrics for demonstrating value for money and I hope you can see that doing so helped you to shape the development of regulation.”
I very much welcome the discussion that the sector has launched about how you can reinforce and demonstrate your offer to residents in advance of the green paper consultation.
You got on the front foot with developing your own metrics for demonstrating value for money and I hope you can see that doing so helped you to shape the development of regulation.
With a co-designed approach, I am convinced that we have delivered a better framework for regulating value for money and that it will be more effective than it would otherwise have been.
Similarly, seizing the initiative to inform the debate about the future direction of consumer regulation has to be the right thing to do and this is true for individual organisations as well as the sector as a whole.
In his Housing 2018 conference speech, housing minister Dominic Raab indicated that the green paper will look at strengthening consumer regulation. Whether you think that is a good or bad idea, I would urge you to engage constructively in the debate that will follow the paper.
Government will want to hear from you, especially if you have positive suggestions about how we and you can meet the changing aspirations of consumers.
Simon Dow, interim chair, Regulator of Social Housing
