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Social landlords to be marked against new tenant satisfaction measures under white paper reforms
As part of changes brought in by the government today, social housing landlords will be measured against a new set of tenant satisfaction measures which will assess organisations on areas such as building safety, handling of complaints and keeping properties in good repair.
The new tenant satisfaction measures were introduced as part of the government’s Social Housing White Paper published today, which it has launched to support tenants in a more meaningful way and ensure landlords raise standards.
As part of the changes, the government has said it wants to increase transparency and accountability of landlords and ensure residents have sight of their performance across key performance indicators.
This includes the English regulator developing a process for publishing a core set of tenant satisfaction measures for all social landlords to measure and assess themselves against.
The white paper outlines a set of draft measures for tenant satisfaction (pictured below), which include information on how landlords have maintained building safety, have kept up with repairs and the number of complaints it has received in relation to fairness or respect.
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The new measures will also see an overall tenant satisfaction assessment for each landlord.
To help drive up standards in these areas, landlords will have to appoint a responsible person, who is in charge of ensuring the organisation is complying with consumer standards and can drive change and fix faults where it is needed.
However, despite the introduction of new tenant satisfaction measures, there is no mention of sector league tables as mooted in the Social Housing Green Paper. The idea for league tables was the headline proposal in the green paper published in August 2018, but Inside Housing reported in March 2019 that it was unlikely the proposal would be taken through after consultation.
In addition to the tenant satisfaction measures, landlords will also be expected to publish some new draft financial measures, which look set to include information on chief executives’ salaries, executive remuneration and management costs in relation to size of landlord.
As part of the push for greater transparency, the government will introduce a new access to information scheme which will allow tenants to get up-to-date information from landlords on their management of housing and from sub-contractors working for the landlords.
If a tenant feels that their landlord has unreasonably withheld information from them, they will be able to challenge the decision, with this resulting in a internal review by the landlord. If it is not resolved at this stage, the Housing Ombudsman can then be engaged, and if a systemic breach of the scheme is found it can refer the landlord to the regulator.
The push for greater transparency will also require landlords to provide a clear breakdown to tenants and leaseholders of how their income is being spent. The white paper suggests that this should be an easily accessible format for residents, with them then being given the opportunity to challenge the landlord when they think the money is not being spent on things to benefit them.
