CIH responds to the Social Housing Regulation Bill

Expected to be published later today (8 June 2022), the Social Housing Regulation Bill will give the Regulator of Social Housing stronger powers to regularly inspect landlords on things like health and safety and repairs performance. It also cuts down the length of time it has to warn organisations about inspections of properties from 28 days to 48 hours.

Gavin Smart, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, says:

"Everyone should expect to be able to live in a home that is safe, comfortable and affordable. At CIH, we would expect all social housing providers to ensure high quality living standards in their rented homes, with repairs carried out on time.

"Whilst social homes are, on average, better quality than other rented homes, we have seen examples where standards of service and quality have fallen short, and this is not acceptable.

“We welcome publication of this bill which provides the foundation we have been calling for, giving tenants’ a greater voice and improving access to redress.

Many social housing providers have already taken steps to strengthen relationships between residents and landlords and to address quality issues. The provisions in this bill will help to accelerate this work.

“Alongside this, the Chartered Institute of Housing and National Housing Federation are working together to support housing providers to take collective action on quality issues, details of which will be published shortly.”