Since April 2012 the regulation of Social Landlords moved from the Tenant Services Authority to a Regulatory Committee within the Homes and Community Agency, bringing some minor amendments to the standards. In 2018 the Homes and Community Agency was replaced by Homes England but the regulation of social landlords remains the same.
Local authorities will now be regulated on four standards not five, as the value for money standard now only applies to housing associations. All of the standards come under two new headings of Consumer or Economic. Local Authorities are not regulated on the economic standards.
Another change made is housing associations are now referred to as private registered providers.
The Economic and Consumer standards are set out below:
Economic standards:
- Governance and Financial Viability
- Value for Money
- Rent
Consumer standards:
- Tenant Involvement and Empowerment
- Home
- Tenancy
- Neighbourhood and Community
Here you can find detailed information on the standards.
Annual Report To Tenants and Leaseholders
Since 2011 the Social Housing Regulator has required all social housing providers to produce an annual report for its tenants.
Housing Annual Report 2021-22 For tenants and leaseholders
We provide this document in other formats including a Housing Annual Report 2021-22 Fully accessible version
What are local service offers?
In addition to the national standards since 2011 we have been required to work with tenants to produce agreed local service offers. These sit below the national standards and are tailored to the needs of the local area. The phrase ‘local’ is left to each provider to determine in partnership with its tenants.
In Wealden we have developed ‘local offers’ for retirement living residents and general needs residents in partnership with our resident groups Wealden Residents Action Group (WRAG) and Retirement Living Residents Group (RLRG).
How have local service offers been developed?
- We worked with tenants to produce our first set of local service offers before 1st April 2011. Since then they have been updated annually.
- The Local Offers are monitored and reviewed and reported back at the end of each financial year via Threshold/our annual report for tenants and leaseholders.
View the latest Local Offers 2022-23
and
Achievements on the Local Offers for 2020-21
Social Housing White Paper 2020
Following the Grenfell Tower fire and the serious failings identified by the subsequent enquiry the Government in 2018 published the Social Housing Green paper. The aim being to reform the relationship between social landlords and their residents. Following this publication in 2018 and the extensive consultation which followed the Charter for Social Housing Residents – Social Housing White Paper was published on 17 November 2020.
The Charter for Social Housing Residents – Social Housing White Paper aims to reform the relationship between residents and social landlords. The Proposals in the White Paper will create a closer working relationship between the Social Housing Regulator and the Housing Ombudsman. As a result the Regulator of Social Housing will create a strong, proactive consumer regulatory regime, strengthening the formal standards against which landlords are regulated. In order for this to happen the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill has been created and is currently progressing.
The Charter set out 7 rights of tenants:
- To be safe in your home
- To know how your landlord is performing
- To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly
- To be treated with respect, backed by a strong consumer regulator for tenants
- To have your voice heard by your landlord
- To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in
- To be supported to take your first step to ownership