People living in social housing to get more protection

People living in social housing will have greater protection from rogue landlords under new reforms proposed by the Regulator of Social Housing (RHS) today.

The new proposals are part of a major change to social housing and aim to ensure every tenant lives in a safe and decent home.

They will also give tenants greater power to hold their landlords to account if things go wrong or standards aren’t met.

The reforms aim to strengthen the safety requirements for tenants and will force social landlords – including councils and housing associations – to be more accountable for their tenants.

Placing a focus on tenants being treated fairly and with respect, it will ensure landlords listen to tenants’ complaints and respond quickly to issues.

It will also require landlords to know more about the conditions of their tenants’ homes and the individual needs of anyone living in them.

RHS will have stronger powers to scrutinise social landlords from April next year.

This will include regular inspections of social landlords to assess whether they meet the new requirements, as well as powers to act if they do not.

The consultation will run for 12 weeks and finishes on 17 October.

Social housing tenants have been invited to have their say on the reforms.

Visit consultation on the consumer standards - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) if you would like to take part and help the RHS form its plan to help social tenants.