COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (191) issued by The Government News Network
on 15 October 2007
A new social
housing watchdog that will crack down on registered social
landlords in England who are giving tenants a poor service, such
as long waits for repairs, is being established as an independent,
standalone body, Housing Minister Yvette Cooper announced today.
The new organisation - the Office for Tenants and Social
Landlords - will have the powers to back up tenants of Registered
Social Landlords (RSLs) when they report poor service.
This new body will replace the role currently played by the
Housing Corporation. The decision to establish the social housing
regulator as an independent body follows consultation with
industry, and will give it a greater focus on protecting the needs
of tenants while freeing good social landlords from red tape. The
current system is not designed to release regulatory burdens from
social landlords who are performing well nor to intervene if
tenant groups complain about the service they receive.
The new office will ensure that landlords provide a good service
to their tenants, complementing the role of the Homes and
Communities Agency in delivering 30,000 new affordable homes a year.
The new watchdog is the key recommendation accepted by the
Government from the Cave Review of Social Housing in June, the
most wideranging review of the regulation of social housing for 30 years.
Under the new system tenants' groups will be able to alert
the regulator to poor service; the regulator will then 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, and to help ensure tenants receive a good service.
Lenders, social landlords and tenant groups argued for the new
regulator to be a standalone body. The Government agreed this
would ensure the confidence of lenders and support the expansion
of new homes.
The Government today also announced that an independently chaired
advisory panel will carry out further work with stakeholders in
order to bring local authorities under the scope of the watchdog
within two years of it coming into operation.
Yvette Cooper said:
"If housing associations are doing a
good job they should have less red tape. But if tenants
aren't getting a good deal, we need much stronger action.
"Social housing tenants shouldn't have to put up with
bad service from landlords. Long waits for repairs or worries
about poor security can make people's lives a misery.
"We want tenants to have a real say on how their homes and
estates are managed. The new regulator will assess landlords'
poor performance and take action to make sure it improves."
Professor Martin Cave said:
"I am very pleased that the
Government has decided to implement the recommendations of the
report and look forward to them being introduced speedily"
Under the new regulator, good social landlords will be freed from
red tape, allowing them to concentrate on getting housing
management services right and building more homes. Tenants and
local councils will be able to trigger penalties by bringing
concerns to the watchdog's attention.
Other key recommendations accepted by the Government under the
Cave Review include:
* 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 tenant voice' for social housing
tenants. The body will ensure tenants can shape and influence
policy and decision-making at local, regional and national Government.
Notes to Editors
1. The decision on the location of the new
social housing regulator recommended in the Cave Review, was
announced to Parliament today.
2. 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.
3. Key recommendations of Professor Martin Cave's review,
Every Tenant Matters: a review of social housing regulation,
presented to the Government in June, 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.
4. 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
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