Industry News


£65million support package for vulnerable renters


Vulnerable tenants struggling to pay their rent this winter will be helped by a £65 million support package announced by the Department for Levelling Up,Housing and Communities. But the Government is being warned that


the financial support is insufficient. Chris Norris, policy director for the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “It is great news that those households worst hit by Covid-may be able to access financial support.However, £65 million does not fully reflect the scale of the problem. NRLA analysis has put the figure of Covid rent debts at over £300 million.” In addition the Joseph Rowntree


Foundation have estimated that 3.8 million households on low incomes are in arrears with household bills, of which 950,000 are thought to be in rent arrears, 1.4 million are behind on council tax bills and 1.4 million are behind on electricity and gas bills. The new package of Government support is


in addition to payments of £310 million alreadymade to councils this year through the Homelessness Prevention Grant. £140 million is also available through Discretionary Housing Payments, which can be used to prevent evictions and help people find a new home. The new funding package will be given to


councils in England to support low-income earners in rent arrears – helping to prevent homelessness and support families get back on their feet. It is for councils to determine the best way


to support each household on a case-by-case basis. Payments are likely to bemade directly to tenants’ existing landlords, or to a new landlord if themoney is being used to support a household to find a new home. The new funding comes on top of the


£500 millionHousehold Support Fund, announced by the Government in September and is helping vulnerable households across the country with the cost of food, energy, water and other essentials. At least 50 per cent of the funding is reserved for households with children. Minister for Rough Sleeping andHousing


EddieHughes MP said: “We have taken action throughout the pandemic to support themost vulnerable families, and it is vital we continue to provide support as we enter the winter months. This new funding will support families that are struggling and help to get them back on their feet as we begin to recover fromthe COVID-19 pandemic.”


Return of inspections flagged up in overhaul of social housing regulation


returning as part of a new focus on services to tenants. Ahead of a formal consultation being launched in December, the regulator has set out ideas for how it would focus on a new set of consumer standards. This follows a stormy year for the social housing sector, with high profile service failings being broadcast on national tevevision news and theOmbudsman beingmore active and openly critical of landlords. In a short 16 page document, ‘Reshaping


O


consumer regulation’, the regulator says it will use the same underlying principles as it uses for economic regulation, but will assess landlords’ services against six themes of: safety, quality, neighbourhood, transparency, engagement & accountability, and tenancies. With a nod back to the previous inspection


regime conducted by the Audit Commission (prior to its abolition in 2010) the regulator says its focus will be on outcomes, but added that it will not be prescriptive and will focus on organisational rather than individual issues. This suggests there will be no return to the Key Lines of Enquiry, which effectively set detailed standards for landlords and assessing the quality of their services. There is nomention of the star rating system previous used to score landlord inspections. The actual powers and responsibilities of the


regulator and the way it carries these out still depend on Parliamentary approval, so it is likely to be at least 18 to 24months before any new regulatory regime comes into force. FionaMacGregor, chief executive of the


regulator, said: “We are pleased to share an overview of our early thinking about how we will reshape consumer regulation and implement the changes set out in the SocialHousingWhite Paper.We look forward to working with social housing tenants, landlords and other stakeholders as we develop our thinking further. “However, delivering all this will take


time. Boards and councillors responsible for 8 | HMMDecember/January 2022 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


ver ten years since housing inspections were last carried out, the social housing regulator has raised the possibility of them


social housing should not wait for new consumer regulation to look at how they can improve their landlord services and their engagement with tenants.” The regulator set out some details of themethods


it proposes to use formonitoring landlords performance against the consumer standards. These are:


• Consumer inspections – either as part of a planned programme of gathering assurance, or where we are responding to information that standards are not beingmet;


• Reactive engagement – responsive follow-up on information that indicates a potential breach of the standards (similar to how we currently operate consumer regulation);


• Desktop reviews – reviewing information about landlords’ performance fromthe tenant satisfactionmeasures and a range of other sources; and


• Data returns – we already collect a wide range of information fromlandlords as part of our economic regulation, and we are considering the data that we might need for our consumer regulation in future to focus our engagement.


It is unclear howmuch direct involvement tenants will have in the regulatory systems and processes, or if the inspections will be similar to the short-notice inspections developed just prior to the Audit Commission’s abolition, which was one of the early actions of the Coalition Government led by David Cameron.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36