Bernadette Conroy, Chair of the Regulator of Social Housing,
today (30 November 2023) used her keynote speech at the Social
Housing Annual Conference to remind social landlords of their
fundamental role: to provide safe and well-maintained homes for
tenants and build new social homes for those who need them.
Bernadette highlighted the importance of landlords’ service to
tenants: “Keeping tenants safe is a fundamental responsibility
for all landlords… they must have an up-to-date understanding of
tenants’ homes at an individual level and ensure they deal with
issues promptly.”
Bernadette added: “The sector needs to make substantial
investment in existing homes to deliver improvements to quality,
building safety and meet energy efficiency commitments. It also
needs to continue delivering new social homes to serve more than
a million households on local authority waiting lists.”
Bernadette also spoke about the impact of economic challenges on
the sector – including higher inflation and borrowing costs,
skilled labour shortages and a weakening housing market – which
“continue to weaken the sector’s financial capacity and put
pressure on landlords’ business plans.” Against this backdrop,
she said, Boards must: “ensure that they maintain strong and
effective control over financial performance and fully understand
their organisation’s assets, liabilities and operating
environment.”
Bernadette concluded her speech by saying to landlords: “We all
have a part to play in achieving more and better social
housing. With the changes in the Social Housing (Regulation)
Act we have the powers we need to regulate the sector
effectively. Our new regulatory regime is approaching rapidly. We
will be ready. We expect that you will be too.”
Notes to editors
-
RSH promotes
a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector
able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality
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.
