New standards for social housing landlords unveiled

Social housing landlords will have to follow new standards from April, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has announced.

The new standards are part of the Social Housing Regulation Act, a landmark law that aims to improve the lives of social housing tenants.

The standards will cover tenant safety, complaint handling, accountability, fairness, respect, home condition, data collection and use, and repairs.

The standards will apply to all social landlords, such as councils and housing associations.

‘Social landlords must keep tenants safe’

The chief executive of RSH, Fiona MacGregor, said: “Social landlords must keep tenants safe in their homes, listen to what they say and put things right when needed.

“We are introducing new standards to drive improvements in social housing, and we will actively inspect landlords to check they are meeting them.”

She added: “We have spoken to thousands of tenants and other stakeholders who have helped shape our new approach, and we are extremely grateful for their input and involvement.

“It is vital that landlords make sure they are ready.”

There is room for improvement

RSH said that most social housing tenants live in decent homes, but there is room for improvement for all landlords.

To ensure compliance, RSH will:

• Conduct regular inspections of larger landlords to assess their performance against the standards
• Analyse data on tenant satisfaction, repairs and other issues
• Intervene when there are problems and use new enforcement powers if necessary
• Maintain its integrated regulation of housing associations’ financial viability and governance.

RSH says it has developed the new standards after extensive engagement with tenants, landlords and other stakeholders.

An inspection programme will start in April and be repeated every four years.

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