Today, the Government are announcing landmark reforms to improve social housing in England, giving tenants a greater voice and bringing transformational change for residents – as we deliver on our manifesto pledge to improve the quality of social housing.
The Government made a commitment to the Grenfell community that, never again, would the voices of residents go unheard. Our manifesto pledged to provide greater redress, better regulation and improve the quality of social housing. Rebecca Harris MP is pleased that today the Government are following through with their commitment.
The Social Housing White Paper sets out plans to speed up the complaints procedure for residents and to make landlords more accountable. It also includes a new Charter setting out what every social housing resident should expect from their landlord – including to be treated with respect, to be safe in your home, to have a good quality home and neighbourhood, and to have your voice heard by your landlord.
The white paper also sets out what the Government will do to ensure landlords deliver this change. Most significantly, the Government is reforming the Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman service to drive the culture change required, backed by legislation where needed.
Today’s announcement also underlines our commitment to safer homes, with a consultation seeking the same legal protections on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms for social tenants as private renters.
To contribute to the consultation on domestic smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/domestic-smoke-and-carbon-monoxide-alarms.
We are bringing transformational change for social housing residents, giving them a much stronger voice and re-focusing the sector on its social mission – making a measurable difference to people’s lives. Today’s announcement will see a transformation of consumer regulation, ensuring tenants are at the heart of social housing delivery. Tenants will get access to quicker and fairer redress so that they are not waiting long months to resolve complaints.
It underlines our commitment to safer homes, with a consultation seeking the same legal protections on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms for social tenants as private renters. And this will encourage improvements to the quality of green spaces for social housing residents
The white paper also reaffirms the Government’s ambition to provide social housing residents with more opportunities to own their home via Right to Buy and a new Right to Shared Ownership for housing association tenants in new grant funded homes.
To view the ‘charter for social housing residents: social housing white paper’ in full, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-charter-for-social-housing-residents-social-housing-white-paper.
