Decent Homes Standard: Review

The Charter for Social Housing Residents: Social Housing White Paper published on 17 November 2020 announced a review of the Decent Homes Standard to understand if it is right for the social housing sector today. Find more details about how the review will be conducted on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/decent-homes-standard-review  

Regulator Strengthens Tenant Consultation Standard

The Homes and Communities Agency published the updated standard following the move to deregulate housing associations in April. The regulator requires housing providers to consult with tenants if they were considering changing their landlord or changing the management arrangements of their homes. Previously housing providers had to get the regulator’s consent before disposing of properties and as part of this process the regulator would check that an adequate tenant consultation had been carried out. However, this disposal consent was dropped in April as part of the government’s deregulatory package for the sector. Download the consultation outcome from the HCA website.

Social Housing Regulator Recognises Challenge of More Diverse Sector

Speaking at the NHF Conference, Regulation Committee Chair, Julian Ashby, highlighted the importance of regulation.  He called for a more tailored approach as the regulator’s remit expands to cover both for profit and not for profit Registered Providers, in what is an increasingly risky operating environment.  As a result, the HCA’s Regulatory Framework will need amendment to take account of different approaches – regulation needs to be tailored in order to achieve a comparable outcome.  The areas that will need amendment or elaboration include ringfencing and the consents regime.  Building on the regulator’s existing risk based approach he said: “This is a new and riskier world.  Social housing assets, and public value, are more at risk.  And failure of one provider will affect the sector as a whole.  So where providers fail to meet our standards or are at risk of doing so, we can and must act.  The sector needs the regulator to be on the case more than ever.”  Read more on the HCA website.

Number of Social Homes Increases

Social housing providers own 2,586,115 homes, a 2.4% increase on the total for 2011 according to the HCA’s Statistical Data Return (SDR).   The data comes from an annual survey and includes data on size and type of home, location and rents over the year. Key data points from the SDR include:

    *1.4% (26,156) of General Needs stock was vacant.  This is a slight reduction from the 2011 figure of 1.5%.  Vacant Supported Housing and Housing for Older People stock reduced from 5.1% in 2011 to 4.4% in 2012.

    *A total of 4,114 homes were sold to tenants, 3,989 were demolished and 3,463 were disposed of for non-social housing use.

    *The average net rent for General Needs stock owned by large Private Rental Providers (PRPs) was £83.20 per week at 31 March 2012.  This represented a 6.3% increase from 2011.  The average gross rent (including any service charges eligible for housing benefit) was £86.27 per week.

    *At 31 March 2012, 1.9% of social rental stock owned by PRPs did not meet the Decent Homes Standard, including cases of tenants declining improvement works to their property.  This was a reduction from the previous year, where 2.4% did not meet the standard. Read more on the HCA website.

Homes in Deprived Areas Costing Landlords £750 More Per Property

Housing associations operating in deprived neighbourhoods face increased costs of around £750 (19%) per property, analysis from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) shows.  The figure was published by the HCA in an analysis of factors driving unit costs in registered providers with stock of 1,000 homes or more.  The analysis is designed to help boards and executives demonstrate how they are meeting the new Value for Money standard, part of the new regulatory framework. The HCA believes driving out unnecessary unit costs should be part of a provider’s strategy to achieve this. Last year providers put operating costs per social housing unit at £3,440. However, the HCA says there is “considerable variance” around this figure with two-thirds of landlords reporting operating costs per unit ranging between £1,200 and £6,800.  Download a copy of the research report from the HCA website.