The Regulator of Social Housing has launched an independent
evaluation to look at the impact of its consumer regulation.
RSH wants to
evidence what impact the reforms - introduced in April 2024 -
have had for social housing tenants and landlords across England.
RSH has
appointed independent research consortium to carry out the
evaluation comprising RAND Europe, Shared Intelligence and the
Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research.
This external expertise will help to ensure a robust evaluation
that provides an independent assessment of the impact of the
reforms.
The researchers will be contacting a range of landlords, tenants,
and other stakeholders to gather views as part of the evaluation.
Director of Strategy Will Perry said: “We want to understand if
and how the reforms have led to change for social housing
landlords and tenants.
“As well as supporting our accountability to stakeholders, we
will take on board learning and
insights throughout this evaluation to help inform any
future decisions about the way we regulate and ensure
RSH continues to
provide proportionate, risk based and outcome focused regulation.
“We would encourage anyone who is contacted to get involved and
help shape the evaluation – your input matters.”
The project will span over two years, with the final report
expected to be published in 2028.
ENDS
Note for editors:
-
On 1 April 2024 RSH introduced
revisedconsumer standards
for social housing landlords, designed to drive long-term
improvements in the sector. It also began a programme of
landlord inspections. The changes are a result of the Social
Housing Regulation Act 2023 and include stronger powers to
hold landlords to account. More information about
RSH's
approach is available in its document Reshaping Consumer
Regulation.
-
RSH promotes
a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector
able to deliver more and better social homes. It does this by
setting standards and carrying out robust regulation focusing
on driving improvement in social landlords, including local
authorities, and ensuring that housing associations are
well-governed, financially viable and offer value for money.
It takes appropriate action if the outcomes of the standards
are not being delivered.
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A range of sector bodies and tenants will be contacted as
part of the evaluation. Individual contributions from
registered providers will not be used for regulatory
purposes.
-
RSH will
write to all registered providers and relevant representative
organisations to explain the evaluation, invite participation
and seek consent to share appropriate contact details with
the researchers. The researchers may need to supplement this
with direct approaches using publicly available contact
information to secure a sufficiently diverse and
representative sample of provider and tenant types.
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RAND has set up an evaluation website: Evaluating the impact of
consumer regulation reforms in social housing - RAND
