The Housing Ombudsman Annual Complaints Review

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The Housing Ombudsman has released its Annual Complaints Review for 2022-23, providing key insights into the social housing complaints landscape. The review reveals a sharp increase of severe maladministration findings, with individual performance reports published for 163 landlords where the Ombudsman made most findings. The report highlights that social housing complaints have seen a huge spike due to poor property conditions, legislative changes, media attention, and the inquest into the death of Awaab Ishak.

The Annual Complaints Review provides a comprehensive assessment of complaints in social housing, including that the Ombudsman received over 5,000 complaints for the first time last year, a 28% increase on the previous year. The report also shows that more than half of the findings were upheld for the first time, with an increase in maladministration findings where service requests were not handled reasonably.

In many of these cases, landlords are making the same mistakes over and over again. This shows that with just a little bit of sharp focus on the important issues the Ombudsman highlights, the sector can get to grips with the problem.

The Ombudsman has again written to Chief Executives of landlords who have a maladministration rate of over 50% to bring urgent attention to the figures. However, this year the Ombudsman is also writing to five landlords who had no findings upheld, recognising their positive complaint handling approach. The review also looks at Complaint Handling Failure Orders (CHFOs) and key issues for the first time, with the Ombudsman issuing 146 CHFOs last year.

The Annual Complaints Review provides key insights and information into the performance of landlords managing complaints. Alongside this publication the Ombudsman are also hosting training and events to keep up to date with the latest policies and best practice.

Read the full review here

Read the resident-facing review here.

To access the Housing Ombudsman Training and Events click here

NHC submits Autumn Statement representation to HM Treasury 

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On the 13th October, the NHC submitted its Autumn Statement representation to HM Treasury, laying out our relevant key asks to support the North’s housing sector.  

On 22nd November, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will make what may be his final Autumn Statement before the next general election. As a result, much of the media focus is on whether the Chancellor will announce any new tax cuts or spending to win over prospective voters.  

The NHC’s representation focuses on:  

  1. Alleviating private rental sector affordability pressures by restoring the Local Housing Allowance so it once again covers the 30th percentile of local rents  
  2.  Providing funding certainty for housing providers so they can effectively plan energy efficiency improvements, through releasing the remaining unallocated funds from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and making a long-term funding commitment for housing retrofit  
  3.  Ensuring that local authorities have the capacity in their housing teams to effectively monitor and enforce compliance with the Decent Homes Standard, especially as it is applied to the Private Rental Sector for the first time  

 

Increasing affordability for those on low incomes renting in the private rental sector  

Since 2019/20, rents in the private rental sector have increased by 15% in Yorkshire & Humber, 12% in the North West and 10% in the North East, while Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates have been frozen since 2020.  

The result of this is that for those on low incomes, private renting is becoming increasingly unaffordable. We now find ourselves in a situation where only 7% of two-bedroomed properties let in the North of England are affordable for people reliant on the LHA. In the North West, this figure is even lower at 4.9%.  

This is leading to increased private sector evictions, and ever-greater pressure on local authorities, who are seeing more households requesting homelessness support and are having to spend record amounts of money on expensive temporary accommodation.  

We believe the government can play a significant role in alleviating these affordability pressures for private tenants on low incomes, by restoring Local Housing Allowance so it once again covers the 30th percentile of local rents, and re-link the LHA to the real cost of renting a home for future years. 

 

Funds for Decarbonising Social Housing  

In 2020, the government announced the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, to support housing providers to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes. So far, around £1.1 billion of funds have been made available to housing providers in four waves (including the most recent £80m for Wave 2.2). 

More needs to be done, however, to accelerate the decarbonisation of our housing stock. There are currently around 3.6 million homes across the North in need of retrofit. The competitive, short-term nature of existing funding streams means that housing providers cannot effectively plan their long-term investments in housing retrofit as efficiently and effectively as they could if there were a clearer idea of what government funding support will be available over the long-term. This means that our energy efficiency drive is slower than it could be, and that supply chains cannot effectively scale up to meet predictable, increasing demand. 

Further clarity for the sector could be provided at the Autumn Statement, if government were to release the money that remains unallocated from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), or by laying out how subsequent SHDF waves will allocate any remaining funds, allowing housing providers to plan their investments with confidence of continued government support.  

Beyond this, a long-term energy efficiency funding commitment of £6bn per year across all housing tenures would provide the certainty required for housing providers and supply chains to scale up plans and operations in housing retrofit.  

   

Decent Homes Enforcement 

As part of the government’s ongoing work to improve housing quality in the Private Rental Sector (PRS), the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) will, at some future point, be applied to the PRS for the first time.  

While the introductory of a minimum standard is welcome, if the DHS is to be successfully applied, this will be a significant increase in the workload of local authority housing teams as they assess homes, and where necessary take enforcement action, against the Standard.  

Recent data from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities showed that the most common local authority enforcement team size is between two and five Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff – with 26 local authorities currently having between zero and one FTE staff working on housing enforcement.  

It is critical that funds are made available to local authorities, so that they have the capacity and expertise within their workforces to meet the increased demands of effectively assessing and enforcing the Decent Homes Standard in the private rental sector.   

 

The NHC’s representation can be found, in full, here. A comprehensive summary of the Autumn Statement and any housing-related announcements will be available to NHC members shortly after the Statement on 22nd November.  

Housing at Party Conference Season  

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The conferences of both main parties took place in October. With this possibly being the final conference season before the next general election, both parties are beginning to flesh out their offer to the electorate, and both made important announcements in the areas of housing, rebalancing and net zero.  

 

Conservative Party Conference 

This year’s Conference Season saw the Conservatives go first, and any focus the Prime Minister may have wished to put on his government’s approach to rebalancing during his trip to the North West was ultimately overshadowed by his decision to scrap the Manchester leg of HS2.  

Rishi Sunak used his speech as an opportunity to present himself as the candidate for change in a future general election and announced new education reforms and an age-related ban on smoking. Housing was notable by its absence in the prime minister’s speech to his party conference, with Sunak only making a brief reference to housebuilding. But while he may not have given much focus to housing in his own address, members of his Cabinet did announce new policies relevant for housing providers over the Conference period and the fringe events had very active discussions on a range housing issues.  

 

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.2  

One significant housing announcement came from newly appointed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho. In her speech, Coutinho announced that £80 million would be made available “to insulate thousands of social homes”, through Wave 2.2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.  

An important condition of this new funding is that housing providers who previously received funding through Wave 2.1 will not be eligible for this wave. Applications for funding are expected to open from 20th November 2023, and further information is available here. 

 

Long-Term Plan for Towns 

The major housing-related announcement was Michael Gove’s ‘Long-Term Plan for Towns’. Fifty-five towns are set to benefit from the plan in total, which will see £1.1 billion collectively spent over 10 years with the aim of regenerating towns and attracting further private and philanthropic investment. 

Each town will receive £20 million in endowment-style funding and support, to be spent on local priorities such as regenerating high streets and ensuring public safety. Each of the towns named in the Plan will also be required to establish a Long-Term Plan for the town, to be consulted on with residents, and to set up a ‘Towns Board’ to bring together community leaders, employers, local authorities and the local MP to oversee the delivery of the Plan.  

Of the 55 listed towns, 25 are in the North: with ten in the North West, six in the North East and nine in Yorkshire & Humber. A full list of the towns, arranged by region, can be found in the table below: 

Towns listed in the ‘Long Term Plan for Towns’  
North West   North East  Yorkshire & Humber  
Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen)  Eston (Redcar and Cleveland)   Grimsby (North East Lincolnshire) 
Chadderton (Oldham)   Jarrow (South Tyneside)   Castleford (Wakefield) 
Heywood (Rochdale)   Washington (Sunderland)  Doncaster  
Ashton-under-Lyne (Tameside)   Blyth (Northumberland)   Rotherham 
Accrington (Hyndburn)   Hartlepool   Barnsley  
Leigh (Wigan)  Spennymoor (County Durham)   Scunthorpe (North Lincolnshire)  
Farnworth (Bolton)   Keighley (Bradford)  
Nelson (Pendle)   Dewsbury (Kirklees)  
Kirkby (Knowsley)   Scarborough (North Yorkshire)  
Burnley  

 

Labour Party Conference  

The Labour Party’s Conference in Liverpool saw housing take centre stage. Keir Starmer pledged in his leader’s speech that a Labour government would oversee the construction of 1.5 million new homes within the first five years of power, through a range of new policies to boost housebuilding. The self-professed “YIMBY” (Yes In My Back Yard) Leader of the Opposition pledged that Labour would reform the planning system to accelerate the approval process, and accepted that Labour would need to overcome local opposition if it were to meet its housebuilding goals. The housing policy proposals in the leader’s speech included:  

  • A new generation of ‘new towns’ with homes built in Georgian design  
  • Release of greenbelt land of low natural or environmental value, termed “the greybelt”, for housebuilding  
  • A package of devolution measures to hand more power over planning and control over housing investment to regional mayors  
  • A ‘planning passport’ to accelerate approval of high-density proposals on urban brownfield sites  
  • New development corporations with power to remove ‘blockages’  

 

Affordable Housing 

Angela Rayner also vowed that a Labour government would oversee “the biggest boost to affordable housing for a generation”. The Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities pledged to strengthen the rules around Section 106 agreements and “prevent developers wriggling out of their responsibilities” to deliver affordable housing. Rayner said Labour would upskill local authorities on Section 106 negotiations, increase transparency around the viability process used to determine whether developers can provide their obligated social homes and “ensure developers could only challenge cases where there are genuine barriers to delivering these new homes”.  

Rayner also pledged to increase the flexibility of the Homes England Affordable Homes Programme, by increasing the proportion of funds that can be used to acquire existing homes. This follows the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) handing £1.9 billion back to the Treasury in July following departmental underspends, including a £600 million underspend on the Affordable Homes Programme.  

 

Labour and Net Zero 

There were no new major announcements in the area of domestic energy efficiency at Labour Conference. Ed Miliband did use his speech to re-commit to Labour’s Warm Homes Plan, which aims to insulate 19 million homes across the country, including 4 million in the North. Labour reconfirmed its pledge to invest £6 billion a year in home energy in the second half of the parliament, something the NHC called for in our Real Homes, Real Change showcase [link]. More information about the Warm Homes Plan is available here.  

 

NHC welcomes Maxmedia as new Supporter members

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The NHC are excited to announce a new partnership with Maxmedia, a marketing and communications agency specialising in social housing. The partnership between NHC and Maxmedia will see Maxmedia provide marketing and communications advise to our members, they will provide sponsorship at events as well as offering housing sector-relevant insights.

Jon Pendrill, Managing Director, Maxmedia said: 

“We’re delighted to be joining the NHC as Supporter members. We’ve built a strong relationship with the NHC over the last few months and have seen first hand the fantastic support they provide to members. We’re anchored deep within the housing sector and we hope our new partnership will allow us to broaden our support to housing providers. We focus on outcomes not output, we use our knowledge of the sector, human behaviour and marketing skills to bring about positive changes through impactful communications.”

Maxmedia understands the challenges of the sector and work to help provide solutions. These solutions can include support with: the journey to Net Zero and retrofit, the cost of living crisis, damp and mould, budget and time constraints, and regulatory requirements and changes. Some of the projects Maxmedia have supported members with include the NHC, Placeshapers and Tpas Heartwarming Homes project, a toolkit supporting engaging and communicating with residents, Bolton at Home’s Bolton Manbassadors project, a Men’s monthly health campaign (and UK Housing Award campaign of the year winner 2022), MSV Housing’s WOW campaign and FCHO’s Cost of Living campaign.

Kate Maughan, Director of Member Engagement at the NHC, said: “We’re excited to announce Maxmedia as a new NHC Supporter. Supporter members bring external expertise and allow us to broaden the support we can offer to our membership of housing organisations across the North. We’re really looking forward to working with Jon and the team to share their expertise and support our members with their communications and marketing needs”.

Visit our website for further information about Supporter membership and Maxmedia.

Pride in Place at Party Conferences

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Earlier this month the Northern Housing Consortium and partners were in Manchester and Liverpool, hosting breakfast roundtables previewing the findings of Pride in Place to political stakeholders. As Rishi Sunak unveiled his ‘Long Term Plan for Towns’, with an emphasis on community-led vision and collaborative working, and Keir Starmer announced a new generation of New Towns, built around prosperity, parks, and public services, the sessions proved timely for both political parties in outlining what northern residents look for in a great place to live.

Each session began with an overview of findings provided by Thinks Insight & Strategy, the research agency established by Deborah Mattinson, the Leader of the Opposition’s Director of Strategy. Although already rich in insights, a testament to the social and private rented sector residents who contributed, this was only a preview, with the full report being published on 9th November at the Northern Housing Summit. Drawn from workshops held across the North, in Blackpool, Benwell, Skipton, Moss Side, and Knowsley, attendees discussed what residents had to say about Levelling Up, what contributes to local pride, and the role of both individuals and in agencies in building pride across areas.

Key themes included access to basic services, transparency and engagement, and the local environment. In Manchester at Conservative Party Conference, attendees including Local Trust, Centre for Cities, and the University of Manchester discussed the importance of social capital; centring around comfort and community, this was the way residents felt at ease in their neighbourhood, and the pride they feel in the connection they have with neighbourhoods and near-by friends. During Labour Party Conference, attendees in Liverpool, which included representatives from across local politics, honed in on the importance of green spaces for health, wellbeing, and sociability. Although universally popular, many neighbourhoods were unsure their green spaces were reaching their full potential, and more could be done to scope out community involvement in reaching that potential.

The Party Conferences were the last stop on the road to publishing Pride in Place at the Northern Housing Summit on the 9th November. There attendees will be joined by Thinks Insight and Strategy, partners involved in the work, and participant residents sharing their views. We look forward to seeing you there.

Updates on the Pride in Place project can be found on the Northern Housing Consortium’s dedicated Rebalancing Webpage:

Rebalancing

RSH Consumer Standards Consultation – our response

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Thanks to everyone who has been involved in our response to the recent consultation on Consumer Standards from Regulator for Social Housing (RSH). We hope that you found our webinar, meetings and opportunities to meet the regulator useful in shaping your response. Your contributions helped very much to shape ours.

Our response to the consultation can be found here.

We will also be responding to the current consultation on fees and expect further consultation documents related to the Social Housing (Regulation) Act to be issued shortly. If you have any comments around the fees consultation, please email nigel.johnston@northern-consortium.org.uk.

We are pleased to have been invited to join the newly-formed RSH Advisory Panel (the only non-national organisation to be involved), and will continue to represent the views of members in our discussions with the RSH.

Prime minister Sunak’s net zero U-turn and what it means for housing

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Last Wednesday, Rishi Sunak announced several changes to the UK’s approach to transitioning to net zero. The measures announced covered a range of topics including electric vehicles, energy infrastructure, consumption taxes and housing. The announcements relating to housing, heating and energy efficiency are laid out below.

 

Energy Efficiency

Strengthening energy efficiency requirements in the private rental sector (PRS) has been a key part of a wider programme of work to develop a fairer and better private rental sector, alongside the proposed abolition of Section 21 (‘no fault’) evictions and the application of the Decent Homes Standard to the PRS for the first time. Government proposals to introduce a requirement for privately rented homes to have an EPC rating of ‘C’ or above by 2026 for existing tenancies, and by 2028 for new tenancies, were first consulted on in 2021.

Last Wednesday the prime minister abandoned these proposals, announcing there would no longer be any Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) introduced for homes in the Private Rental Sector (PRS) and that government would “never force any household” to make energy efficiency upgrades.

This is an incredibly disappointing move and leaves significant questions as to how government plans to decarbonise one of the most energy inefficient housing tenures both nationally and in the North. Across the North, 61.7% of homes in the PRS currently fail to achieve an EPC rating of ‘C’ or above, compared to 45.3% in the socially rented sector. Considering such statistics, government should be doubling down and being ambitious on increasing the energy efficiency of privately rented homes rather than retreating as the prime minister has done.

 

Heating

The first heating-related policy change from the prime minister is that the ban on the sale of new oil, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and coal heating systems for off-grid homes is to be pushed back to 2035. This was previously set to come into force from 2026 and will impact around 1.7m homes across the country, mostly in rural areas.

The ban on installing gas boilers in new-build homes, and the wider ban on installing any new gas boilers both remain where they currently are, in the years 2025 and 2035 respectively. Sunak also announced that there will be exemptions granted for “households who will most struggle to make the switch to heat pumps or other low-carbon alternatives”. It is not yet known how a system of exemptions will work, but it is thought that it will cover approximately 20% of existing homes.

Despite some changes to planned timescales, the government remains committed to their target of installing 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028. Approximately 55,000 installations took place last year – one of the lowest installation rates in Europe – meaning that supply chains and installations will need to ramp up significantly in the next five years if we are to stand any chance of meeting such a target. Even still, the Climate Change Committee suggests that to reach net zero by 2050, the UK will need to install 900,000 heat pumps per year.

To boost the installation of renewable heating systems, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which offers grants to replace gas boilers with renewable heating systems such as heat pumps, and has seen low uptake from homeowners, has been given additional funds to increase the maximum grant per household from £5,000 to £7,500.

According to the most recent Census, only 6.6% of households across the North heat their homes solely using electricity, compared to 78.4% of households whose only source of heating is mains gas. The North faces an immense challenge to substantially change these numbers, fully decarbonise our homes and complete the transition to zero-carbon heating. To do so effectively, we need both policy stability and funding to support the transition. The increases to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme are certainly welcome, but the government will need to go further to support the take-up of renewable heating systems and to support housing providers and homeowners in retrofitting properties to increase energy efficiency. The Northern Housing Consortium have previously called for a long-term funding commitment of £6bn per year across all tenures. This ambitious level of investment would give housing providers confidence that support will be there for the long-term, and to allow supply chains and skills providers to scale up and deliver warmer homes and cheaper bills for residents, as well as reducing our carbon emissions.

 

Get involved in Black History Month

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The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) is asking NHC members to get involved in their work to promote this year’s Black History Month.

You can contribute in any way you feel most comfortable, and that best represents the messages you wish to convey and stories you wish to share. You can write a blog (CaCHE usually asks for them to be no more than 800 words), and written for a well-informed, but not necessarily expert, audience.

They would also happily receive other suggestions, such as short videos, artwork, poetry or other ideas you might have.

If you want to get involved please contact gareth.young@sheffield.ac.uk as soon as possible and submit your contributions for review by Friday, 6 October 2023, or as soon as possible afterwards. If you would like to send something at a later date they are happy to post things throughout the year as part of their wider work.

RSH Consumer Standards consultation

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The consultation on Consumer Standards issued in July by the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) has been largely well-received by NHC members. The consultation follows the passing of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act and outlines the RSH expectations of the standards customers can expect. Four standards are being consulted on.

  • Safety and Quality Standard– which replaces and enhances existing Home Standard
  • Transparency Influence and Accountability Standard– which replaces and enhances existing Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard
  • Tenancy Standard– updates and enhances the existing standard
  • Neighbourhood and Community Standard– updates and enhances

NHC members heard directly from the Regulator in an online session on 20 September and we held an in-person session for local authority members on 28 September.

We will be submitting a response before the due date of 17 October and we have been taken soundings from NHC members to inform that response. Whilst largely supportive, members would like to receive more details on compliance with some of the suggested standards. We would encourage members to submit their own organisation’s response to RSH. The consulation documents and information on how to respond is available on RSH website

Consultation on the consumer standards – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you have any comments, or are happy to share your own organisation’s response, please contact nigel.johnston@northern-consortium.org.uk

Reshuffles in Conservative and Labour parties ahead of party conferences

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Over the past month we’ve seen Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet reshuffles in the government and the opposition respectively, as both parties prepare for a general election in 2024. Following the resignation of Ben Wallace, Rishi Sunak appointed former Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) Secretary, Grant Shapps, to Secretary of State for Defence. To replace Shapps at DESNZ, the prime minister has appointed Claire Coutinho as Secretary of State. Coutinho will lead on the government’s work to reach targets on energy supply and decarbonisation.

Moving on to the Labour Party, a more substantial reshuffle took place across the Shadow Cabinet – including deputy leader Angela Rayner becoming Shadow Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Secretary. Rayner replaced Lisa Nandy, who had served in the role since its creation in November 2021 and has now been made Shadow Minister for International Development.

Angela Rayner confirmed that Liverpool MP Paula Barker would continue in the Shadow LUHC team in a newly created role – Shadow Minister for Devolution and the English Regions – signifying the importance Labour will place on devolving power away from Westminster. Weaver Vale MP, Mike Amesbury, was also announced as a new member of Labour’s Shadow LUHC team as Building Safety and Homelessness Minister. We were delighted to have Mike Amesbury attend our Real Homes, Real Change showcase in the House of Commons in June and look forward to working with him and the rest of the team in the future.

[Mike Amesbury MP with NHC chief exec, Tracy Harrison, at Real Homes, Real Change showcase in the House of Commons in June]

Rayner also confirmed that Shadow Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, would remain in his role.

Other changes to Labour’s Shadow Cabinet include Liz Kendall being appointed as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and Thangam Debbonaire taking on the Shadow Culture, Media and Sport brief – replacing Lucy Powell who was appointed Shadow Leader of the House. Sarah Jones MP was also moved into Ed Miliband’s Shadow DESNZ team as Minister for Industry and Decarbonisation. To see Labour’s Shadow Cabinet in full, see here.

The NHC will continue to engage with both the government and the opposition in the run-up to the next general election, as we focus on our influencing priorities of putting housing at the heart of a rebalanced country and meeting the net zero challenge. This includes attending both party conferences in October, where we will be sharing the initial findings from our new Pride in Place research project and meeting with MPs and stakeholders.