Regulation – Call for Evidence

A parliamentary committee has announced an inquiry into social housing regulation, with a Call for evidence on quality of social housing, effectiveness of regulation and on SHWP proposals

Call for Evidence – Committees – UK Parliament

As you can see from the link, the call for evidence is around the following key questions:

• How widespread and serious are the concerns about the quality of social housing?
• What is the impact on social housing providers’ resources, and therefore their ability to maintain and improve their housing stock, of the need to remediate building safety risks and retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient?
• Is the current regime for regulating social housing fit for purpose?
• How clearly defined are the roles of the Regulator of Social Housing and the Housing Ombudsman?
• Does the current regime allow tenants to effectively resolve issues?
• Do the regulator and ombudsman have sufficient powers to take action against providers?
• Will the reforms proposed in the social housing White Paper improve the regime and what progress has been made on implementing those reforms?
• What changes, if any, should the Government make to the Decent Homes Standard?
• Should the Decent Homes Standard be amended to include energy efficiency and other means of mitigating climate change, and if so how?
• Should all providers of social housing, not just councils, be required to register with the regulator?
• What challenges does the diversification of social housing providers pose for the regulatory system?

The NHC is intending to submit a response to the Call for evidence before the due date of the 21st December, and it would be good to get feedback from you to ensure that our response reflects your views. If you have any comments or responses to the above questions, please contact Nigel Johnston (nigel.johnston@northern-consortium.org.uk). To allow us to collate responses, we would appreciate comments by the 13th December 2021.