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Regulator to consider approaches to grading white paper consumer measures, says MHCLG
England’s social housing regulator will be handed responsibility for devising a grading system to underpin the new consumer regulation regime set out in last week’s white paper.
The Social Housing White Paper put forward ministers’ vision for an overhaul of the way consumer standards are regulated in the sector, with landlords subject to regular routine inspections and assessed against new tenant satisfaction measures.
But the white paper provided little detail about how landlords’ performance will be assessed under this new regulatory approach.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) currently issues regulatory judgements for housing associations’ performance against its economic standards using a four-tier grading system for governance and financial viability – ranging from G1 to G4 and V1 to V4.
Asked whether a similar grading system could be applied to the new consumer regime, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) was unable to provide a definite answer.
A government source said: “The regulator will need to do further work and consult tenants, landlords and other stakeholders to develop the new consumer regulation regime.”
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Sector league tables were the headline announcement of the document’s precursor, the Social Housing Green Paper, published in August 2018.
However, there was no mention of league tables in the recent white paper, despite a promise to enable tenants to compare their landlords’ performance against others.
A summary of responses to the consultation on the Social Housing Green Paper published alongside the white paper noted that “many respondents expressed concerns about the proposals for key performance indicators (KPIs) and/or league tables”.
“It will now be for the regulator to consider how the tenant satisfaction measures should be published,” the source said.
Inside Housing revealed in March 2019 that league tables were unlikely to be introduced following negative feedback from landlords and tenants alike over fears they could exacerbate stigma about social housing.
It is understood that the RSH has already begun gathering thoughts on how the new consumer regulation regime will shape up.
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