The Social Housing (Regulation) Act became law in July 2023, and introduced new standards for social housing landlords to meet from April 2024.
What is the Social Housing (Regulation) Act?
The Social Housing (Regulation) Act is a series of regulations that set standards that social housing landlords, such as LiveWest, must meet. It follows the Government's Social Housing White Paper in 2020, which set out the Government's commitment that there would not be another situation similar to the Grenfell Tower fire. The White Paper also set out a commitment to make it easier for more people to buy a home.
The Act will improve standards in social housing and hold landlords to account for the service they provide to customers.
The regulations have been introduced to ensure;
- Residents are safe in their home.
- Residents know how their landlord is performing.
- Residents have their complaints dealt with promptly.
- Residents are treated fairly and with respect.
- Residents have their voice heard by their landlord.
- Residents have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in.
What will it mean for LiveWest customers?
Customers may notice some changes to the way we do some things and may also be asked to provide feedback about their experience as a customer.
Building safety
The safety of our customers is a priority for us. We are currently carrying out a review of all buildings which are over 18 meters or 7 stories, including ensuring the actions taken in the event of a fire are up to sate and upgrading fire doors and safety equipment which stops the spread of smoke and fire. For customers living in these buildings, we will provide regular safety information and give residents opportunities to feedback on safety.
We will have to report to the regulator how we are keeping customers safe in their homes. This includes measures for gas, fire, lift, legionella and asbestos safety.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures
Our regulator has introduced a set of new Tenant Satisfaction Measures which will measure the performance of social housing landlords. This includes a new survey which will give our customers opportunity throughout the year to tell us what they think about LiveWest as a landlord. You can see the latest results here.
Complaints
We aim to get things right first time, but occasionally things do not quite go to plan, and customers may feel they want to raise a complaint about the service they have received. We are committed to resolving complaints as quickly and effectively as possible, and that we learn from mistakes we have made. We work in accordance with the Social Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code. You can read more about this here.
Fairness and Respect
The regulations make sure that social housing landlords treat customers fairly, respond to complaints quickly, and consider customers in major decisions. We must provide information about how we are performing so that customers and others can hold us to account.
Listening to our customers
The regulations make sure social housing landlords are working for the needs of customers and acting on feedback. We have a wide range of opportunities for customers to get involved and have their say on the service they receive from us. Find out more and join our customer engagement groups here.
Training and qualifications for colleagues
The Social Housing (Regulation) Act gives the Regulator of Social Housing the power to set a standard for the training and qualifications of social housing managers. The Regulator is developing this standard following a consultation, and we are making plans for any colleague who requires it to obtain the new qualification.
A new shared ownership offer
The Government introduced a new shared ownership lease in 2021.
The new shared ownership lease applies to shared ownership homes funded under the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021-2026 and only applies to certain developments, and certain homes. Click here to find out why.
The new lease works in the same way as before but with a few key changes. These changes have been introduced to help even more people get on the property ladder and include:
- a minimum lease term of 990 years.
- buying as little as a 10% initial share of a home.
- an option to buy more shares from as little as 1% each year.
- help with non-structural repairs for the first ten years of shared ownership.
These new homes will be highlighted on our website. For further information, please contact our Sales team on 0800 027 9801 or email newhomes@livewest.co.uk
Find out more about shared ownership here.