Housing

Housing rules overhaul puts tenants first

Published 19 June 2007

Social housing tenants who consistently get a poor service - such as long waits for repairs or failure to deal with concerns about poor security - will be able to report their landlord to a new, independent social housing watchdog and trigger action to put it right, under proposals outlined today.

  • New proposals for watchdog with real bite
  • Tenants get new power to penalise failing landlords

Social housing tenants who consistently get a poor service - such as long waits for repairs or failure to deal with concerns about poor security - will be able to report their landlord to a new, independent social housing watchdog and trigger action to put it right, under proposals outlined today. 

In a major housing speech in Harrogate, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly will support measures which will be put forward as part of the most wide-ranging review of social housing regulation in over 30 years.

A new watchdog would have the authority to impose a wide range of penalties and sanctions on failing social landlords, including the power to trigger a change of management or cap rent rises and to help ensure tenants receive at least a minimum standard of service. 

Tenants and local councils will be able to trigger these penalties by bringing concerns to the watchdog's attention.

At the same time, good social landlords will be freed from red-tape, allowing them to concentrate on getting housing management services right and building more homes. The change would be part of a new deal with the profession, giving new freedoms to good landlords to help them improve services still further.

There will also be an increased focus on housing supply. New proposals will set out how Communities England - a new housing and regeneration agency - will replace two existing agencies, putting a clearer, strengthened focus on supporting local areas to do more to deliver both the social and private homes that the country needs - boosting annual housing supply to more than 200,000 by 2016.

The package of proposals to give tenants a greater voice follows an independent six-month review of regulation conducted by Professor Martin Cave of Warwick University. They include:

  • A new social housing watchdog with the right to obtain information and to inspect providers; the power to cap rent increases due to poor performance; the scope to set and issue fines; the ability to appoint board members; and in cases of persistent poor performance where the landlord has failed to respond to previous interventions, the power to transfer management (including to tenants) and/or ownership.
  • Plans to publish top-level information scoring landlords on the standard of housing, level of tenant satisfaction, operating costs and rents, allowing people to compare the quality of their landlords.
  • A new national 'consumer champion' body for social housing tenants. The body will take on the role of influencing local, regional and national Government, ensuring tenants' voices are heard at all levels where decisions that affect them are taken.

In addition, the Government will publish new proposals to make it easier for tenants to take over the day to day management of council estates.

A simpler Right to Manage process will strip away a number of layers of bureaucracy, making it easier for local authority tenants to take control of day-to-day management of housing repairs, maintenance and refurbishments.

At present it can take more than six years for tenants to set up a tenant management organisation - under new proposals this could take around two years. Whilst not every area might want to, research shows satisfaction and service levels are higher when tenants have a greater role in management.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly is expected to say that the current patchwork approach to regulation fails to take adequate account of tenants' interests. She will say:

"I welcome the review's recommendations and I would like to thank Professor Cave for all his hard work.

"In 1997, the Government inherited a dilapidated housing stock and we have now spent around £20billion in transforming it. The next challenge is to increase housing supply and give the responsible majority of tenants a far greater say on how their estates are run.

"This major review of regulation will ensure a better system to help protect the interests of the eight million people currently living in social housing. 

"We need to move to a system that puts tenants in the driving seat and that minimises the burdens on good social landlords.

"The changes mean landlords are more accountable while ensuring tenants have a real say about how their homes are managed for the first time.

"At the same time, we need to build new homes across the country. Communities England will spearhead our efforts and play a key role in supporting local communities in delivering the homes we need for future generations."

Professor Martin Cave said:

"The current system of regulation of social housing was established over thirty years ago. It is therefore timely to review it comprehensively, and I am pleased that the Secretary of State asked me to do so. 

"I believe that my package of proposals will build on past achievements of providers and regulators, but above all refocus attention upon what individual tenants want, give them more choice, and improve the service they receive: hence the title of the report - Every Tenant Matters."

Notes to Editors

1. In December 2006, the Government asked Professor Martin Cave, Director of the Centre for Management under Regulation at Warwick University, to consider options for reform of social housing regulation.

2. Key recommendations of Professor Martin Cave's review, Every Tenant Matters: a review of social housing regulation, include:

  • Regulation of housing associations and investment in new social housing to be separate
  • Regulator to be independent of Government, but subject to strategic directions on rent levels and standards
  • Regulator has objective to empower and protect tenants
  • Less regulation for housing associations who perform well
  • Tenants and local authorities can trigger investigation by regulator by providing evidence of poor performance
  • Wider range of intervention powers to deal with poor performance
  • Duty for landlords to engage constructively with local authorities in their place-shaping function
  • National tenant voice to be set up.

3. The full text of the review is available on the Communities and Local Government web-site at Every Tenant Matters: A review of social housing regulation: Full Report and Executive Summary by Professor Martin Cave.

4. The department has also today published two consultation documents, Delivering Housing & Regeneration: Communities England and the future of social housing regulation (consultation ends 10 September 2007) and Tenant Empowerment Consultation (consultation ends 11 September 2007). The documents are available at Delivering Housing and Regeneration: Communities England and the future of social housing regulation and Tenant Empowerment - A consultation paper respectively.

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