Director of strategy at the regulator says some organisations ‘don’t have a grip on some of the basics’
The Regulator of Socai Housing (RSH) has had an uptick in referrals relating to social housing providers’ basic health and safety compliance and gas servicing.
At the CIH Brighton conference on Thursday, Will Perry, strategy director at RSH, said the body is learning “just how patchy” landlords’ performance is against the existing regulatory standards.
Source: Regulator of Social Housing
Will Perry, director of strategy at the RSH
On the referrals, Perry said “we thought we had those issues cracked 10 years ago”. He added that he thinks “more of those things will be coming out of the woodwork gradually”.
He commented: “What you see when you look at some of the things we’ve had referred to us, it indicates that some organisations just don’t have a grip on some basics”.
Perry said that the regulator will have to make some “uncomfortable judgements” and have some “difficult conversations”, including instances where it has to make use of its new enforcement powers.
“We won’t hesitate to call out things where we see them, we won’t hesitate to intervene where we need”, he said.
>> See also: CIH Brighton: Homes England ‘building up pipeline to push for funding programme post-election’
>> See also: Evolution or revolution? What the Regulator of Social Housing’s new consumer standards mean for RPs
However, he said that the regulator hopes it can continue to have a collaborative approach with many organisations and “come out of what has been quite a difficult period in a much better place”.
During a panel session on the regulatory’s new consumer standards, Stephen Blundell, operations director at Leeds Federated Housing Association, said: “What the regulator doesn’t want to see, in my opinion, is people parroting the same lines.
“An executive team that repeats phrases from the corporate plan, a board that’s been coached to repeat the same phrases and a group of engaged tenants who repeat those same slogans.”
He added that ”the biggest single risk” is that registered providers see the new consumer standards as “primarily a kind of compliance framework”.
Blundell made clear that organisations must comply with the standards, but “if we are too focused on that, without thinking about it, we turn the regulator into our primary customer”.
He added: “that’s absolutely not what’s intended here, the regulator is not our customer”.
Leeds Federated was one of the organisations that participated in the regulator’s consumer inspection pilot, which he said he could say a lot about but that it would be “unwise for you to extrapolate from it because every organisation’s experience was unique and will be unique”.
The RSH held two rounds of inspection pilots. Seven providers took part in an initial pilot: Bernicia Homes, Brunelcare, Cheshire Peaks and Plains, Eastbourne council, Folkestone and Hythe council, Guinness and Torus.
Another four landlords were involved in the second pilot: Aster Group, Leeds Federated Housing Association, Accent Group and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group.
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