Expert Panel To Advise Government On Social Housing White Paper

A new 15-strong panel of experts has been assembled to help the government deliver its Social Housing White Paper. The so-called ‘expert challenge panel’ is drawn from bodies across the sector, including the National Housing Federation, Shelter and Grenfell United. Individuals from each organisation have not been named. The group is due to meet four times over the next year to provide “scrutiny and advice” on the white paper. Read more on the Social Housing website.

https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/news/expert-panel-to-advise-government-on-social-housing-white-paper-72052?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

RSH Announces Tenant Satisfaction Measures Sounding Board

The Government’s Social Housing White Paper asks the RSH to deliver a new consumer regulation function to help reset the relationship between landlords and tenants. One of the changes will be to implement a set of tenant satisfaction measures that will help tenants and the RSH hold providers to account and inform regulation. To allow enough time for implementation, the RSH is to consult on a proposed set of tenant satisfaction measures in winter 2021-22, ahead of discussions and consultations on the standards and operating model. To help with this, a sounding board has been crated with representatives from across the sector. Members of the tenant satisfaction measures sounding board include representatives from the organisations including;

·         ARCH

·         Chartered Institute of Housing

·         Councils with ALMOs

·         National Federation of ALMOs

·         National Housing Federation

·         TAROE

·         Tpas

Read more on the Gov UK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rsh-announces-tenant-satisfaction-measures-sounding-board 

Social Rented Housing: Standards – Parliamentary Written Answer

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department is providing to local authorities to help them ensure that their social housing stock meets the decent homes standard.

Eddie Hughes: In the Social Housing White Paper, we committed to reviewing the Decent Homes Standard. The review will consider whether the standard needs to be updated to ensure it is delivering what is needed for safety and decency now, including on energy efficiency and green spaces.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-03-15/169015 

Government Launches A Campaign To Empower Social Housing Residents To Raise Complaints

The Government's Social Housing White Paper promised to run an awareness campaign so that social housing residents know their rights to complain and are confident in navigating their routes to complain and are aware of how to escalate their complaints to get redress. The national campaign under the headline 'Make Things Right' will run adverts on digital and social media channels, as well as music streaming sites, to raise awareness of the complaints process and barriers to these being progressed. Read more on the ARCH website.

http://www.arch-housing.org.uk/news/latest-news/government-launches-a-campaign-to-empower-social-housing-residents-to-raise-complaints.aspx

 

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  

Social Housing White Paper Introduces ‘Tenant Satisfaction Measures’

The wait for the Social Housing White Paper is finally over, and government has set out in the document how it intends to “improve social housing and give residents a greater voice”. The White Paper is set to “make landlords more accountable for the services they deliver” and will introduce a set of “tenant satisfaction measures that landlords will have to report against”. As part of these tenant satisfaction measures, the government says it will "expect landlords to report to every tenant on such matters at least once a year, if not continuously using technology." Read more on the HQN website.

https://hqnetwork.co.uk/index.cfm?page=news&item=social-housing-white-paper-introduces-tenant-satisfaction-measures-4206 

Housing Associations Sceptical About FOI-Style Demands In White Paper

New proposals put forward in the Social Housing White Paper that will make it easier for tenants to access information regarding their housing associations, which are similar to the requirements under the Freedom of Information Act, could cost time and money, landlords have warned. The white paper proposed a new scheme for social housing tenants to access information, which allows “tenants or their representatives to access information related to the management of social housing held by their landlord”. The proposals also suggested that tenants could be able to access relevant information that may be held by sub-contractors contracted to housing associations. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-associations-sceptical-about-foi-style-transparency-demands-in-white-paper-68634?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

White Paper: RSH To Take Up Consumer Regulatory Function

 The government’s long-awaited Social Housing White Paper has outlined a host of changes to the regulatory regime within which social housing providers operate, revolving around a new consumer regulatory function to be delivered by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The document, titled The Charter for Social Housing Residents, sets out that a new consumer regulatory regime should “hold landlords to account” and “build the links between economic and consumer regulation – giving the regulator a full rather than partial view of the landlord”. Establishing the new consumer regulatory function within the existing regulator is therefore seen as the “best approach” to delivering the changes required by tenants while avoiding confusion and complexity. Read more on the Social Housing website.

https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/news/white-paper-rsh-to-take-up-consumer-regulatory-function-that-is-proactive-proportionate-outcome-focused-and-risk-based-68629?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Social Housing White Paper Expected In Autumn

The long-awaited Social Housing White Paper is due to be published in the autumn with a focus on strengthening the powers of the regulator to intervene on consumer affairs.  It is two years this week since the government published its Social Housing Green Paper, which it intended to “be the most substantial report of its kind for a generation” and trigger major reform of the sector. But despite a consultation on its proposals closing in November 2018, the promised follow-up white paper has not yet been published. Sources close to the process have said the document was set to be published in the spring, before being put on hold again due to the coronavirus pandemic. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/social-housing-white-paper-expected-in-autumn-with-regulation-focus-67563#:~:text=Social%20Housing%20White%20Paper%20expected%20in%20autumn%20with%20regulation%20focus,-News19%2F08&text=Its%20publication%20has%20now%20been,to%20intervene%20in%20tenant%20services 

Jenrick Stresses Commitment To Social Housing White Paper

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has stressed a commitment to the social housing white paper and reinforced the Prime Minister’s pledge that recommendations in the Phase 1 Grenfell Inquiry report will be accepted and implemented. “We will fund any actions that are required in order to do so, we will bring forward legislation as soon as possible, including ahead of the building safety Bill,” Jenrick told the Commons. Other elements of Jenrick’s address included:

·         Naming building owners that are not remediating ACM cladding at the pace that is required and take enforcement action against them.

·         Implementation of the Hackitt review in full.

Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/jenrick-stresses-commitment-to-social-housing-white-paper/