Consumer Regulation Review 2023/2024: Key messages for the sector

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published its annual consumer regulation review for 2023-2024. The review sets out key themes from its consumer regulation casework over the last year, alongside a number of case studies. 

Whilst the report covers the 12-month period before the new consumer standards were implemented in April 2024, the findings are still highly relevant to the new standards and provide useful learning to help landlords deliver the outcomes of the latest consumer standards and strengthen their approach. This blog will outline the key themes from this document, breaking down your requirements into an easily digestible format. 

To discover more on the new consumer regulation regime, catch up on our webinar, ‘New Consumer Regulation Regime: Insights and Updates’, to hear from the Assistant Director of Regulatory Engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing! Our panel of experts discussed how the sector has adapted to the consumer regulation changes including insight into the new set of consumer standards, Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) data returns, and best practices to prepare for landlord inspections. 

Key Themes 

Landlords must meet all health and safety requirements to keep tenants safe 

The report highlights how some landlords failed to meet the Home Standard by either not completing all required legal safety checks and/or by not completing the remedial actions arising from the checks promptly. Meeting your health and safety duties is crucial to not just complying with the standard but, most importantly, to ensuring your tenants are safe. 

As of April 2024, completing remedial actions as well as checks is also a requirement of the new Safety and Quality Standard; therefore, the lessons from these cases remain relevant. 

Landlords must know the condition of the homes they own and manage 

The report sets out examples of landlords who did not have accurate, up-to-date, and complete data on the condition of the homes they own. RSH found landlords with a significant number of homes that did not meet the Decent Homes Standard or landlords who did not have the data to assure themselves that their homes met the standard.  

The Safety and Quality Standard has introduced a new requirement for landlords to have accurate stock condition information on every home based on a physical assessment. Landlords must ensure that homes meet and are maintained to Decent Homes Standard, using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) to assess the severity of risks to tenants and to have reliable information on the condition of their stock. 

For expert insight on your latest stock condition requirements under the Safety and Quality Standard, sign up for our next free webinar, ‘Stock Condition: Meeting the Safety and Quality Standard’, to discover how to ensure compliance during your stock condition journey.  

Landlords must handle complaints effectively, engage with tenants, and treat them with fairness and respect 

The report highlighted issues with how a landlord was not managing complaints in a timely way or treating tenants with fairness and respect. Landlords must ensure complaints are addressed fairly, effectively, and promptly. It’s important to remember that managing complaints effectively can help build tenants’ trust and confidence in a landlord. The new Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard requires landlords to have a simple, accessible, and publicised complaints process and to provide tenants with information on how to make a complaint.  

Under the new standards, landlords are also required to take tenants’ views into account in their decision-making and let tenants know how their views have been considered. Complaints provide an important source of insight and intelligence for landlords on how systems work; therefore, landlords must have systems to learn from complaints and where things have gone wrong.  

Landlords must be proactive 

The report noted that landlords’ requirements to keep tenants safe goes beyond completing legal health and safety checks. For example, landlords should have a proactive approach to identifying damp and mould and act in a timely way to resolve issues when tenants report them. It is important that landlords understand the needs of their tenants and take them into account when assessing risks from damp and mould, learning the lessons from the tragic case of Awaab Ishak. 

Data and record keeping 

The report flags the importance of landlords having effective record keeping in providing assurance that all required health and safety checks and remedial actions have been completed and that they understand the decency position and condition of their homes.  

Fundamentally, RSH expects landlords to have effective systems and reliable information on the homes they manage and ensure they use this to provide good quality, well-maintained, and safe homes for tenants. 

Self-referral 

The report also highlights the importance of landlords referring themselves to RSH when they find a problem. This is a fundamental part of RSH’s regulation and is now a requirement under the new consumer standards. 

For more information on the revised consumer standards, download our FREE Guide to the New Consumer Regulation Regime for details on maintaining compliance with the new requirements in preparation for your landlord inspection.   

What should landlords be doing to address the issues raised by the report?  

Under the new consumer regulation regime, RSH has a greater range of tools to assess performance, stronger powers to intervene, and will be taking a more proactive approach to consumer regulation. Landlords should consider the lessons learnt from the report and apply them as part of their ongoing work. For example, you should:  

 •    Continually assure yourself that you are delivering on the outcomes set by the RSH. 
 •    Tell the RSH promptly if you discover a material issue or a potential material issue. 
 •    Have effective systems and reliable information on the condition and quality of the homes you manage. 
 •    Ensure you are meeting all your legal obligations around health and safety checks and remedial actions. 
 •    Have an effective complaints process in place and learn from complaints. 
 •    Engage with your tenants and involve them in decision-making and scrutiny. 
 •    Ensure your boards and councillors understand the requirements of the new standards and have good oversight, scrutiny, and performance.  
 •    Be proactive in your approach, for example, in identifying issues of damp and mould and acting to remedy them.

Looking for further help? Our experts can provide tailored support and advice on all areas of consumer regulation. Please get in touch to speak to one of our experts to gain a comprehensive understanding of the new regime. 

In support of the new standards, we can also provide assistance around understanding your stock condition, damp and mould, HHSRS, health and safety compliance, and building safety.