© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
Regulation of social housing is under the spotlight and Professor Martin Cave’s review is due soon. The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) believes in the need for fundamental reform of regulation rather than improvements to the existing system, says Sarah Webb.
Social housing has changed since the foundations of the existing regulation framework were built and the system now has weaknesses. First, it treats housing associations, council landlords, developers of affordable housing and private landlord bodies differently, despite the fact many of their activities are the same from the customer’s point of view. This places uneven regulatory burdens on different organisations, and means customers are not all supported to the same degree.
Second, there are inadequate sanctions to address serious problems and to protect residents’ interests. There is also a lack of incentives for housing providers to perform well, and of mechanisms to deal with minor concerns.
And most importantly, there is an emphasis within the systems on housing providers rather than on outcomes for tenants. CIH proposes a new model of regulation that would require an independent body to grant time-limited ‘licences to operate’. Residents would sit alongside community and Government representatives on this body, and would determine which organisations can provide housing services, would monitor their ongoing suitability as a provider and intervene if necessary. The ultimate sanction of the regulator would be to revoke an organisation’s licence to deliver a housing service.
If an organisation is to be licensed then it will need to have a good framework for self-regulation accredited by the licensing body. Independent external inspection has an important role to play but it needs to focus on outcomes rather than processes and needs to allow customers to be involved in defining standards. Better publicly available performance information should also be accessible to customers. The CIH agrees that consumer and community expectations should be placed at the heart of the regulatory regime. Perhaps the best way of achieving this is to give residents choice over the services they receive, the opportunity to set the standards and the ability to hold their landlords to account where service is poor.