YHN welcomes new social housing regulations

Although the Government has yet to announce when the new Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 will come into force, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is likely to start their new programme of regulatory inspections from next April.

YHN is pleased to see that the Bill has now become law and we look forward to working with Newcastle City Council (your landlord) and the regulator to demonstrate our continued commitment to providing comfortable homes and high-quality services.

This is really good news for people living in social housing, as the aim of the act is to provide you with a much stronger voice in the sector and to ensure that your home meets very specific standards.

We would encourage all of our customers to contribute to the consultation announced on 25 July around the draft consumer standards - these are: 

• The Safety and Quality Standard
• The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard
• The Neighbourhood and Community Standard
• The Tenancy Standard.

Further details about the consultation can be found here. 

The Act itself brings in lots of new obligations that landlords need to meet and a stricter approach to regulation, with ‘ofsted’ style inspections and providers who fail to meet standards being ‘named and shamed’. 

The Bill, which became the Act, was introduced into parliament last year to deliver the reforms outlined in the Social Housing White Paper and address concerns raised following the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017.

It includes new requirements around:

• Awaab’s law -following the death of the two-year old after exposure to damp and mould in his home
• Professionalisation – requiring housing providers to ensure their employees hold relevant qualifications and update their training when necessary
• Consumer rights and regulation – providing new powers for the Housing Ombudsman and Regulator
• Making tenants’ voices heard

While the specifics of the Act will mean Newcastle City Council works with the regulator in a very particular way, YHN on behalf of the council has actually been working on a lot of these elements for many years now. Our business plan objectives have always been around ensuring a positive customer experience and placing customers at the heart of everything we do, and our existing Customer Voice Group has been really central to that.

In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, we set up a specific team to ensure that all resident concerns were addressed and that our work around fire safety could be more efficiently monitored. The safety of our buildings and our customers has always been a priority for us and we're now delivering a comprehensive, large-scale programme of building safety case reviews and customer engagement activity to ensure we go above and beyond legislative requirements.  

We have already started registering our high-rise buildings with the Building Safety Regulator in advance of their October deadline and have recently become one of the few housing providers in England to be accredited as a BAFE (British Approvals for Fire Excellence) Registered Organisation, showing our commitment to being a leader in the field of building safety in the social housing sector.

We have also recognised the need for a more consistent approach to the issues with damp and mould that are being experienced by our customers, as with all customers across the social housing sector, and have set up a dedicated team to deal with these issues for you.

We know that there have been some recent news stories regarding issues around housing demand in Newcastle and the potential for changes to the way Newcastle City Council manage their housing, but we want to reassure you that we remain absolutely committed to ensuring everyone has a safe and comfortable home and to providing the best possible services to our customers.

The regulations may mean a change for us in the way we work with the regulator and how we report information, but our passion for providing our customers with a positive experience remains as strong as it has ever been.

You can read the Act in full here, we look forward to working together with you to achieve its aims.