Social Housing White Paper: Law Timeline

The Social Housing White Paper, or The Charter for Social Housing Residents, was published in November 2020 and set out measures to improve the quality of social housing in England. The paper outlined plans for new regulation, a strengthened Housing Ombudsman to speed up complaints, and a set of tenant satisfaction measures that social landlords would have to report against. The white paper reforms apply only to social housing landlords and residents in England.

The Social Housing Regulation Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, provides the legal basis for many of the white paper reforms. The core objectives of the bill are to facilitate a new, proactive consumer regulation regime, refine the existing economic regulatory regime, and strengthen the Regulator's powers to enforce the consumer and economic regimes.

There is no timetable attached to delivering the measures set out in the social housing white paper.

The Social Housing White Paper, or The Charter for Social Housing Residents, was published in November 2020

The Charter for Social Housing Residents set out seven commitments that residents should expect from their landlords:

• To be safe in your home.
• To know how your landlord is performing, including on repairs, complaints, and safety, and how it spends its money.
• To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly, with access to a strong ombudsman.
• To be treated with respect, backed by a strong consumer regulator and improved consumer standards for tenants.
• To have your voice heard by your landlord.
• To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in, with your landlord keeping your home in good repair.
• The government will ensure social housing can support people to take their first step to ownership.

The white paper also proposed a range of other measures and reforms, including:

• A reformed and strengthened Regulator of Social Housing with new reactive and proactive consumer regulation.
• A strengthened Housing Ombudsman to allow tenants easier access and speed up complaint resolution.
• A series of key performance indicators (KPIs) and tenant satisfaction measures that landlords will have to report against.
• A new accountable person for safety and consumer standards within each landlord.
• An expectation that tenants should be able to access key information from their landlord.
• An intention to tackle anti-social behaviour and clarify the roles of different agencies.
• A consultation on mandating smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in rental homes.

The Social Housing White Paper was generally well-received by tenants, social landlords, and the housing sector. However, there were some concerns expressed about the slow pace of reform, lack of clarity about who and what social housing is for, failure to address issues around the supply of homes for social rent, and potential challenges for social landlords in resourcing the new requirements. The Social Housing Regulation Bill [HL] 2022-23 provides the legal basis for many of the white paper reforms and is currently passing through Parliament.

The White Paper set out wide-ranging and compulsory changes to how social housing organisations operate

The Social Housing White Paper, or "The Charter for Social Housing Residents", was published in November 2020 and set out wide-ranging and compulsory changes to how social housing organisations operate. The paper was a response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, which exposed a range of issues with social housing. The paper covers seven key themes:

• To be safe in your home: This includes measures such as mandatory installation of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, an increased focus on electrical safety, and the requirement for landlords to have a nominated person responsible for health and safety compliance.
• To know how your landlord is performing: Landlords must now report on a set of tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) and name a senior person responsible for consumer standards compliance.
• To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly: The Housing Ombudsman's complaints handling code has been strengthened, and the 'democratic filter' scrapped, allowing tenants easier access to the Ombudsman.
• To be treated with respect, backed by a strong consumer regulator for tenants: The Regulator of Social Housing will have increased powers to address non-compliant landlords, including the ability to issue unlimited fines.
• To have your voice heard by your landlord: Landlords will be required to seek out best practices in resident engagement and involvement, and residents will have access to a Government-led learning and support programme.
• To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in: The Decent Homes Standard is being reviewed to consider energy efficiency, decarbonisation, and access to green spaces. Landlords will also be required to report on their handling of anti-social behaviour.
• To be supported to take your first steps to ownership: The paper includes measures to increase the supply of affordable homes and redesign the shared ownership model, including reducing the minimum initial stake for shared ownership to 10%.

The Regulator of Social Housing will be given greater powers to address non-compliant landlords

The regulator will be empowered to carry out routine inspections of landlords with over 1,000 homes every four years and reactive inspections where non-compliance is suspected. It will also be able to require landlords to submit Performance Improvement Plans and reduce the notice period for property surveys from 28 to 2 days. The regulator will be able to recoup the costs of emergency repairs from landlords and arrange for these repairs to be carried out if a survey uncovers evidence of systemic failure.

The Social Housing Regulation Bill, currently passing through Parliament, will provide the legal basis for many of the white paper reforms. The bill will also strengthen the Housing Ombudsman, allowing tenants easier access and speeding up complaint resolution.

The Housing Ombudsman's complaints-handling code will now help to ensure consistency of complaint handling by different landlords

The Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code became statutory on 1 April 2024, meaning that landlords are legally obliged to follow its requirements. The code sets out best practices for landlords' complaint-handling procedures to enable a positive complaints culture across the social housing sector. It encourages landlord-tenant relationships so that residents can raise complaints if issues arise.

The code includes 9 sections:

• Definition – what is a complaint?
• Exclusions – what will not be treated as a complaint
• Accessibility – making it easy to lodge a complaint, meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, and offering reasonable adjustments where appropriate
• Staff – landlords should designate a person or team to handle complaints
• Process – sets out a clear 2-stage complaints process
• Stages – sets out the timescales for responses at both stages, including the use of extensions
• Putting things right – considering the impact on the resident and taking corrective action
• Self-assessment – landlords must annually self-assess their compliance with the code
• Scrutiny – appointing a Member Responsible for Complaints to be accountable for complaints

The code aims to empower complaint-handling teams, encourage staff ownership and engagement, and ensure that appropriate resources and tools are provided for handling complaints. It also provides senior staff with insights into day-to-day operations, allowing them to assess effectiveness and identify organisational risks or issues.

The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 places a duty on the Housing Ombudsman to monitor compliance with the statutory Complaint Handling Code. This means the Housing Ombudsman ensures that all landlords meet the standards set out in the code for complaint handling, regardless of their size or operating model. The Housing Ombudsman also has a legal duty to ensure that landlords' complaint procedures and responses comply with the code.

The Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code will help ensure consistency in complaint handling across different landlords. It establishes clear guidelines and procedures that landlords must follow when dealing with tenant complaints. This will promote fairness and consistency in the way tenant complaints are addressed, regardless of the specific landlord or housing organisation involved.

The Social Housing Regulation Bill [HL] 2022-23, which is currently passing through Parliament, provides the legal basis for many of the White Paper reforms

The Social Housing Regulation Bill [HL] 2022-23 is currently passing through Parliament and provides the legal basis for many of the White Paper reforms. The bill originated in the House of Lords and was last updated on the 12th of August 2022.

The bill is sponsored by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and seeks to make provisions for the regulation of social housing, approved schemes for the investigation of housing complaints, and other connected purposes.

On the 18th of October 2022, the bill underwent Division 1 in the House of Lords, wherein Baroness Hayman moved Amendment 14 to insert a new clause on "Standards relating to energy demand" after Clause 20. The amendment was agreed upon with 141 members voting Content and 115 voting Not Content.

The Social Housing Regulation Bill [HL] 2022-23 is a crucial piece of legislation that will translate the proposals outlined in the White Paper into enforceable laws, ensuring that social housing tenants in England are afforded the rights, respect, and dignity they deserve.

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