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Consumer regulation
Patterns and lessons from recent judgments
REGULATION
Catherine Little
Director, Campbell Tickell
Catherine Little
Director, Campbell Tickell
Issue 76 | February 2025
The Regulator of Social Housing has now published 61 judgements using the new consumer grades for England: 32 housing associations and 29 local authorities, as of January 2025. Serious weaknesses have been found in 36% of cases, almost all as a result of reactive engagement and all but two with local authorities.
It’s still early days, but several patterns are emerging through the consumer regulatory judgements.
judgements published by the Regulator of Social Housing
housing associations
local authorities
Patterns emerging
First, there are no real surprises: tenant safety is front and centre of the regulator’s mind, along with the need to understand stock condition and to meet service standards.
Second, the number of C1 judgements to date is higher than we might have expected from the regulatory narrative as the standards were published. And it is positive to see that some providers have really gotten hold of the expectations.
Third, the real eye openers are the non-compliant C3 and C4 judgements, where serious weaknesses have been found. These have tended to be in the basics of safety compliance, in data quality and integrity, in the provision of services, handling of complaints and the lack of meaningful tenant engagement and scrutiny. By any measure, these are pretty damning verdicts.
Fourth, it is clear most social landlords are engaging with the regulatory regime and putting improvements in place – many in the face of pressing financial and operational difficulties. While the regulator reserves the right to use its extensive range of intervention and enforcement powers, there is a window for landlords to get hold of issues and put improvements in place.
Four lessons
Our four main observations from working with councils and housing associations across the country are:
- The council or board needs to have assurance of regulatory compliance. Landlords with robust frameworks – including clear reporting, effective oversight, and rigorous checks – will be best positioned to demonstrate this co-regulatory spirit.
- The quality and integrity of data is central to many of the regulatory standards. It is not enough to see high performance. The governing body needs to have confidence in the validity of the information they review.
- Culture is absolutely central to meeting the standards in terms of focusing on tenants’ safety, homes, services and voices.
- If weaknesses are identified, either by the landlord or by the RSH, it is critical to demonstrate transparency and capability in understanding the depth and breadth of the issue(s). It is also important to put in place realistic improvement plans and learn lessons from the presenting issues across the landlord services.
A version of this article was originally published by The Municipal Journal on 06 November 2024. The figures have been updated as of January 2025.
