Social Housing Regulations FAQs: What do people want to know?

Last month, we livestreamed our Social Housing Regulations webinar, featuring guest speaker Angela Holden from the Regulator of Social Housing. Angela joined us in discussing all things Social Housing White Paper and Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), particularly for Building Safety, to help you understand what you need to be doing now in order to prepare for 1^st April 2023.
You can watch the webinar on-demand below.

We’re here to compile some of the main questions we received during the webinar, asked by the audience themselves. Here’s what our clients are wanting to know…

What is the Regulator’s view on survey methodology?
The Regulator has intentionally avoided stating how you must conduct your survey because landlords know their tenants best, therefore they will know how to gain the most representative set of responses that reflect tenant experience. It’s a good idea for landlords to reflect and ask themselves…

• Why am I collecting data in this way?
• What do I expect to gain from using this method?
• Upon reflection, is this really the best method?
• Did that give us the representative picture that we need?

How frequently will registered providers be expected to submit performance information?
The Regulator will expect an annual submission, upon instruction, of the specified information collected and processed relating to your performance against the 22 TSMs.

Is the submission form available to view yet?
Not just yet. Don’t expect the form to be too complicated, as the main focus is on the numbers from providers.

Should providers be doing a full census or a proportion of residents?
This depends on your size as a provider, and how many tenants you need to ask in order to gather a representative sample. The Regulator expects that most providers will do things on a sample basis rather than a full census, mainly because of the volume of tenants. However, other smaller providers may end up at census level in order to get a representative sample across their number of tenants.

As a provider, we own significantly more Low Cost Rental Accommodation (LCRA) properties than Low Cost Home Ownership (LCHO) properties (3,000 > 200), should we be reporting their perception measures separately?
In this instance, you should only be reporting on your LCRA properties that provide living accommodation within a building (dwelling units). As per Annex five, paragraph 18 and 19, providers who own 1,000 or more LCRA dwelling units, but less than 1,000 LCHO dwelling units, only need to report tenant perception measures for LCRA.

However, if you were to gain ownership of 1,000 or more LCHO properties, as well as 1,000 or more LCRA properties, then you would need to report tenant perception measures for them separately.

Regarding gas safety checks, if a LCHO unit has a mixed tenure block with individual boilers, do we include this in the calculation? Or do we only include these properties if they have a communal heating system?
This question refers to the calculation of BS01 (page 29 of annex four). If your LCHO unit does not have gas safety check requirements then this would be excluded from the calculation. This could be units with individual gas appliances in homes where there are no statutory obligations to carry out any checks.

However, if your LCHO unit has a communal part that does require a gas safety check, such as a communal boiler, then this must be included in the calculation.

Has the TSM of ‘satisfaction as a place to live’ been deleted?
This question refers to the measure that has been split by the Regulator following consultation feedback. The Regulator has split the TSM of whether a home and neighbourhood are safe and of good quality, down into two measures. This is because upon reflection, the Regulator determined that safety and good quality are two different things that should not be captured as a single measure.

If we survey customers with the new TSMs as a test, can we re-survey the same customers later in the year?
The technical guidance doesn’t cover this, but we would say yes! It is important that providers are keeping on top of checking and understanding the data throughout the whole year, so that it doesn’t all pile up towards the end. For instance, it would probably be effective to have information on a rolling basis. Although, be mindful of any potential impact on your residents. The Regulator has been conscious of survey fatigue, and you don’t want to tire out your residents with overwhelming amounts of information and questioning. Ensure that you manage this by distributing information in a way which avoids risking the quality of data you are trying to gain.

Regarding the number of potential residents at risk, do providers also need to evidence whether private leaseholders are compliant, for example, evidence that they have serviced their gas boiler?
None of the TSM work is intended to impose additional requirements for providers. However, for gas safety checks of a dwelling unit, checks are required inside the dwelling itself and in any communal parts that serve the dwelling. For example, checks would need to be done on a communal boiler in a building which is owned by a third party landlord if the boiler is used by the LCRA and LCHO units owned by the provider.

Are providers tending to still make efforts in ensuring that the private leasehold properties have had the relevant checks, even if they don’t have the statutory obligation to do so?
As it stands, there is no blanket approach; things are still evolving. Some organisations will have leases which state that tenants must carry out relevant checks, such as have a gas and electrical safety check conducted and provide the evidence, whereas others may not have the ability to do so yet because it has not been included in the lease requirement.

Do the responsive repairs include things like repairs to a stairlift in a home by a specialist third party or other mechanical and electrical repairs?
Yes, if these are repairs within individual dwelling units alongside any communal parts of the building. As stated in Annex four page 27, a responsive repair refers to a reported defect to a property occupied by one or more tenants, where it is the landlord’s responsibility to fix. When submitting all responsive repairs, providers must also include any repairs where they have commissioned a contractor or third party to carry them out.

What are the main differences between LCRA stock and LCHO, and how they should be treated for TSM reporting?
LCRA stock and LCHO are defined as per sections 69 and 70 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (‘the Act’). They must be reported separately, as described in Annex 4, paras 11-14.

How should Rent to Home Buy properties be treated at the various stages in their lifecycle? We note that the Intermediate Rent are specifically highlighted as part of the LCRA stock, but aren’t sure how they should be treated once there is an initial tranche purchase.
When the property is wholly rented to the tenant, it is included within the LCRA reporting. Once the tenant has started to purchase the property (i.e., they have acquired a share of the property, but less than 100%) it is then counted within the LCHO reporting. If the resident acquires the full 100% of the shared ownership property, it is no longer counted within the TSM reporting. Paras 11-14 of Annex four set this out.