Government unveils plans to “name and shame” failing social housing providers

The Government is to “name and shame” failing social housing providers as part of reforms intended to give residents a stronger voice and drive up standards.

Those providing sub-standard housing and services will be publicly called out on the Government’s website and across social media channels, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said.

This would happen where landlords have breached the Regulator of Social Housing’s consumer standards or where the Housing Ombudsman has made a finding of severe maladministration against them.

The reforms include the creation of a Resident Panel that will allow tenants who live in social housing to be heard directly by government. Around 250 social tenants from across England will be invited to share their experiences and help the Government ensure its reforms work to drive up standards. Any social housing resident can submit an application to join the Panel, which will close on 29 April.

The package of measures also includes:

• Publishing draft clauses to legislation that will reform the regulation of social housing "through tougher consumer powers, greater enforcement tools to tackle failing landlords and new responsibilities on social landlords".
• A new factsheet explaining the role of the Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman Service.
• A single gov.uk page, setting out our progress on implementing the measures in the Social Housing White Paper and further measures being introduced to improve quality of social housing.

Minister for Social Housing Eddie Hughes said: “Everyone in this country deserves to live in a safe and decent home. It is unacceptable that anyone should have mould covering their walls, risk slipping on a wet floor or have water dripping from the ceiling.

“We have published draft legislation today to toughen up regulation of social housing landlords. This includes naming and shaming those landlords who fail to meet acceptable living standards and giving tenants a direct channel to raise their concerns with government.

“This package will help to deliver on our commitment in the Levelling Up White Paper to halve the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030.”

Matt Cowen, an Associate in the Social Housing team at law firm Winckworth Sherwood, said: “The Government has published draft legislation which will hold social housing providers to greater account. It will see the introduction of higher standards of safety and quality in social housing stock, including the requirement for social housing providers to designate a person to act as lead on the landlord’s health and safety obligations towards tenants.

“Under this draft legislation, the Regulator for Social Housing will be able to proactively regulate consumer standards, a marked change from the reactive approach that they have taken to date where they only involved themselves if there was a risk of ‘serious detriment’ to tenants.”

Cowen added that measures such as ‘naming and shaming’ and the national residents’ panel represented a significant change to the relationship between the social housing provider and its tenants, “so it is vitally important social housing providers actively consider what changes need to be made, taking into account their specific tenant and stock profile”.

He said: “Whilst we have only just seen the draft legislation, its contents are not surprising. Social housing providers have had considerable notice of most of these changes, so the Regulator for Social Housing is unlikely to be flexible with further time extensions to achieve compliance once the legislation is enacted. Social housing providers must act now.

“We expect these measures to be included in the forthcoming Social Housing Regulation Bill.”