The Regulator of Social Housing has published the questions today
that it will use to survey providers about operational risks
during the coronavirus pandemic.
The short survey will ensure that RSH has up-to-date
information from providers on the issues that the sector has said
are particular operational risks: gas and fire safety checks,
care and support staffing levels, emergency repairs, and other
health and safety checks. RSH will use the
information from the survey to help identify where there may be
challenges that the sector or individual providers need
regulatory support to meet.
This survey is part of a suite of measures that RSH announced in
its letter of 26
March to help support the social housing sector through
the crisis. The wider measures include pausing its programme of
In-Depth Assessments and delaying submission dates for regulatory
information.
Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive of RSH said:
We want to help providers maintain tenant safety by identifying
emerging operational risks across the sector and providing
regulatory support where it’s most needed. That’s why we’re
surveying providers across the sector to give us up-to-date
information about the areas worrying them the most.
We need providers to be honest with us about the risks they’re
facing in these areas as they make difficult choices and
trade-offs so that we can help them and others across the
sector. This is neither box-ticking, nor an exercise to
identify non-compliance.
Notes to editors
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The survey will ask providers to answer a single
multiple-choice question on each of five key areas: emergency
repairs; statutory gas safety checks; statutory fire safety
checks; asbestos, electrical, legionella and lift checks; and
care and support staffing levels. For each area it will also
ask them to identify any key constraints, risks and
mitigating actions and the scale of any backlog.
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The survey will be sent to all private registered providers
with more than 1,000 homes, all local authority registered
providers as well as some registered providers with fewer
than 1,000 homes who RSH will be
contacting shortly.
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The survey and supporting guidance will be available for
providers to complete on the RSH data collection
portal NROSH+ from
Friday 17 April. Providers should submit survey responses
through NROSH+ covering the period up to and including 17
April, by Friday 24 April.
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The Regulator of Social Housing promotes a viable, efficient
and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver homes
that meet a range of needs. It does this by undertaking
robust economic regulation focusing on governance, financial
viability and value for money that maintains lender
confidence and protects the taxpayer. It also sets consumer
standards and may take action if these standards are breached
and there is a significant risk of serious detriment to
tenants or potential tenants. For more information
about RSH, visit:
https://gov.uk/rsh.