The Social Housing Regulation Act: where are we now?

The Social Housing Regulation Act became law in July 2023. This moment represented several years of consultation, work and policy development to bring about the changes to the social housing sector that were first introduced in the Social Housing Green Paper in late 2018.

More than one year on, what has happened?

In April 2024, the new consumer regulatory regime began. Alongside the now well established Governance and Financial Viability gradings, a third Consumer grade is now awarded based on how well a landlord can demonstrate compliance with the newly revised consumer standards.

It is still early days, but the Regulator of Social Housing has started to publish gradings awarded under the new regime. At the time of writing, 18 consumer grades have been awarded, albeit with 8 of these awarded through reactive engagement with landlords where issues had been identified, and 10 through proactive inspections. All 10 of the landlords that have been through a proactive inspection to date have received either a C1 or C2 grading.

These inspections are a step change, with landlords needing to provide extensive assurance to the Regulator across a wider range of areas. We know our members are keen to learn as much as possible about how to prepare for an inspection. At a NHF webinar on 11 October, you can hear directly from the Regulator and housing associations that have been through a proactive inspection. We’ll run another webinar in early 2025 to share further learning.

Alongside the new inspection regime, the Act also bestowed more powers on the Housing Ombudsman. These included:

• Putting the Complaint Handling Code on a statutory footing.
• Placing a legal duty to comply with the Code and a duty on the Ombudsman to monitor compliance with it.
• Enabling the Ombudsman to issue “wider orders” such as to order a scheme member to review their policy or practice on an issue.
• New powers to issue statutory good practice guidance, meaning a landlord can now be required by the Ombudsman to self-assess against the guidance where there are any concerns.

These changes to the regulatory and oversight regime are substantial, and we know our members are both working hard and investing significant resources to ensure they meet the standards required to deliver good homes and services to residents.

In our Social Housing Renewal Plan, we called on the government to prioritise the successful adoption of these measures before bringing forward additional requirements. We believe this will allow time to understand how housing services and residents’ experiences of them are already changing before additional measures are brought in.

What’s still to come?

In the first half of 2024, the government delivered on commitments made in the Social Housing Regulation Act to consult on three further significant policy proposals.

These were Awaab’s Law, a new Competence and Conduct Standard, and the Social Tenant Access to Information Scheme (STAIRS). We responded to all of the consultations, drawing on extensive input and insight from our members. In each of our responses we welcomed the intention of the policy proposals while highlighting concerns about how deliverable the full set of proposals would be.

Until the new government responds to the consultations on these measures we will not know exactly when they will be introduced. On Awaab’s Law, all that is required for its introduction is secondary legislation that could be passed quickly. The new Competence and Conduct Standard requires a further consultation undertaken by the Regulator on the proposed new standard. The consultation on STAIRs did not set a timetable for implementation.

With each of these additional measures, we have called for a careful and considered approach to implementation which takes into account the full array of new requirements that landlords are already delivering against.

We are hugely grateful for the support we receive from our members to make detailed, evidenced submissions to government. We know how important it is for our members to have as much certainty as possible to plan for future investment in new and existing homes, how services should be delivered, and to be able to retain and attract high quality staff to deliver those things.

We will continue to update our members on the progress of these three policy areas over the coming weeks and months, and continue to create opportunities for members to learn from one another as the new regulatory regime beds in. Do get involved in our Customer Experience and Housing Management Network to keep in touch with the latest updates and gain insights from across the sector.

If you have any queries, please do get in touch via the contact details below.