Social housing tenants will be able to access the information
they need to hold their landlords to account and drive up the
quality of homes and services they provide.
A consultation on new rules, launched today, will allow social
housing tenants or a representative, such as a lawyer, to request
information for free about the management of their homes, for the
first time. This could include:
- Damp and mould: tenants experiencing damp and mould could
request information on how many other homes in their building
have the same problem and what action the landlord has taken to
repair, giving them the tools they need to take further action if
they choose.
- Health and safety: including any information landlords hold
about breaches in their properties and outcomes of any
inspections. Tenants could take further action through the
Housing Ombudsman if their landlord isn't making the repairs they
need to make by law.
- Repair times: under new rules brought in by the Social
Housing (Regulation) Act landlords must fix emergency repairs
within 24 hours, tenants will be able to see how often their
landlord is meeting this target and challenge them through the
courts or take them to the Housing Ombudsman if they don't.
Housing associations will also be forced to publish information
about their performance.
This is in response to a key ask from social housing residents
for greater transparency following the Grenfell Tower
tragedy.
Minister for Social Housing Baroness Scott said:
We are creating a culture of openness and transparency among
social landlords and tenants, giving residents the tools they
need to hold their landlords to account so they can raise
standards to the high level they rightly expect.
This is part of the biggest government reforms to affect social
housing in a decade, which will be crucial in addressing systemic
issues relating to safety, quality and tenant-landlord
relationships that were identified after the Grenfell Tower
fire.”
Landlords will have to provide the information unless it is
reasonable not to, with clear expectations on how landlords
should respond to requests, while tenants will be able to
complain to the Housing Ombudsman if they are not happy with how
their information request has been handled.
This is just one of the measures the Government is taking to
drive up the quality of social housing, having
recently:
- Introduced a new proactive consumer regulation regime, with
the Regulator of Social Housing carrying out routine inspections
of large landlords to drive up standards and ensure tenants live
in decent homes and are treated with fairness and respect by
their landlords.
- Consulted on Awaab's Law, which will introduce new
requirements for landlords to fix hazards in social homes within
fixed timeframes.
