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RSH plans external review to assess impact of new regime
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is planning a review of its new regulatory regime to assess the system’s “real-world” impact on landlords.
The Regulator of Social Housing is planning a review of its new regulatory regime to assess the system’s “real-world” impact on landlords #UKhousingThe evaluation will take place over the four-year inspection cycle and be carried out by “someone external” to “try and bring in a degree of independence”, a housing conference heard yesterday.
Fiona MacGregor, chief executive of the RSH, told delegates at the Housing Community Summit that it was currently designing the impact assessment.
The review will look at how the new regime is bedding in, how it is driving improvements at organisations and the impact for tenants. The regulator will also use it to assess where any changes need to be made.
The regulator brought in new consumer standards on safety and quality, neighbourhood and community, tenancy and transparency a year-and-a-half ago.
Social landlords are now awarded a consumer grading for how well they meet these measures, which replaced the previous in-depth assessment programme.
Ms McGregor said the English regulator also aimed to examine other aspects of how it was working. Over the next two to three years, it would look at the viability and governance standards to see if these needed to change, she said.
It will also consider whether the way it was regulating was “fit for purpose”.
“We are getting good feedback on the inspection regime. People think we’re asking the right questions, that we’re... properly engaged,” she added.
“I think we’ll want to look in four years’ time at things like could we be even more risk-based, do you do everybody every four years, questions like that.”
The RSH has revealed the key themes from its annual report since it started its new inspection regime last April. The regulator has published more than 100 regulatory judgements from inspections under the new regime. Key themes from the report centre on the RSH’s governance, financial viability and consumer regulation of social landlords.
The report reinforces what landlords must do to be compliant with the RSH’s standards. Strong governance and managing risk effectively are key, including by keeping robust data on the safety and quality of tenants’ homes.
On the report, Ms MacGregor said: “There are early signs that our new proactive approach is already making an impact. We will continue to hold landlords to account to make sure current and future tenants have a safe, decent place to live.”
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