On this page, we plan to answer your questions on changes to social housing consumer regulation. We’re starting it off with questions raised during our webinar in March on the updated consumer standards. These have been answered by our senior team leads Catherine Little, Jon Slade and Ceri Victory-Rowe. If you have more questions to ask the team, feel free to email us at: comms@campbelltickell.com.
1. Do the new consumer standards apply to temporary and supported accommodation?
The short answer is that they apply to all social temporary housing and all social supported accommodation. The Regulator expects providers to take advice if they are not sure whether their homes are defined as social housing.
Social housing is defined in the 2008 Housing and Regeneration Act as “ADD”. The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) also points to the definitions of low cost rental accommodation (LCRA) and low cost home ownership (LCHO) contained in the Rent Standard. Slightly confusingly, these definitions are used to set out exemptions to the rent standard. The same definitions, however, can be used to understand where the Consumer Standards apply.
2. Will the regulator share what type of evidence they would be looking at to demonstrate compliance with specific expectations?
In short – it is unlikely to do so.
The RSH has a duty to be risk-based and proportionate in the way it approaches its duty. The regulation of social housing is, accordingly, based on a system of ‘co-regulation’. In practice, this means that the standards are carefully outcome focused, rather than setting out how you should comply.
It also means that:
Boards and councillors of landlords are responsible for ensuring their organisations are managed effectively and that they deliver the outcomes of our standards. (See: RSH: Our role and approach to regulating landlords.)
When the RSH carries out an inspection, they are looking for evidence of the assurance that Boards/Councillors have of compliance, and not testing compliance in detail.
Inspection will include a document review while the request list will include information about what the RSH is seeking to understand. This is alongside suggestions for the documentation that could be provided by the landlord, as well as the invitation to provide an alternative, if that is more appropriate.
Next steps:
If you’d like to submit a questions to be answered here please email: comms@campbelltickell.com.
Regulation services
- Find out more about our consumer regulation consultancy support.
- Email one of our senior team lead consultants in regulation: catherine.little@campbelltickell.com, jon.slade@campbelltickell.com or ceri.victory-rowe@campbelltickell.com.
- Call: +020 8830 6777
