Social housing Consumer Standards: four key considerations
April 1st 2024 wasn’t just your average Monday. It was a day that marked historic change for the UK’s social housing sector, with the introduction of the Consumer Standard regulations coming into law.
These regulations focus around four standards. They aim to empower tenants with more rights and more respect from landlords, and will hold housing associations to account for their actions if they’re deemed to be delivering services below par.
We’ve seen news articles, social posts and discussion papers in their droves covering the topic. Detailing what the changes cover, when they’ll be implemented, and creating a sense of doom and gloom amongst stakeholders in the sector (if you’d like to get up to speed on the basics – this article is a good starting point). But at VerseOne, we want to be a little different.
Our focus has been to educate organisations and encourage peer-to-peer discussions between the decision makers that will be held responsible for non-compliance, to help them share ideas and strategies to encourage compliance across the industry. To run these discussions, we teamed up with David Done, ex-CEO of RHP and VerseOne Strategic Advisor, who shared his experience around key strategic priorities that will empower organisations to implement changes that ensure compliance under the new regulations.
We’ve broken down the discussion into four key considerations to guide you along the path to strategic success and help your business get onboard with the necessary changes for consumer standards compliance.
1. Instigate cultural change
It was unanimously agreed that boards and senior leadership teams need to lead the way in a shift of thinking when it comes to data. They need to communicate the importance of data quality from day-to-day operations and how this drives positive outcomes for tenants whilst meeting internal KPIs. This shift in mindset doesn’t sound easy but when paired with the right technology, clean operational data that can drive decision making is possible. And, if this initiative is driven from the top and the benefits are clearly communicated to the team on the ground, tenants will benefit from a higher level of service, and staff can provide tenants with the information they need without looking at multiple systems and incorrect data.
2. Prove compliance with a data-driven evidence trail
The new consumer standards state the need for fact-based assurance across the service and community to avoid fines and penalties for the members of the board who are ultimately responsible. Typically, housing associations in the past may not have reported on all areas of their service, giving verbal reassurance to the board in place of cold-hard data. The sector needs to put a stop to this, ensuring an official paper trail based on real data that not only provides an audit trail for assurance, but helps them identify potential issues ahead of time. This would mean plans can be put in place to stop the issue from escalating and leading to interventions to the regulator, providing an extra layer of assurance for the board and key stakeholders who will ultimately be held responsible.
3. Understand your tenants and properties
One of the key sticking points under the new regulations is the stipulation for physical property inspections. With a housing stock of just over 11000, Cross Keys are a housing association who are ahead of the curve when it comes property inspections. They hired two full time staff to conduct physical inspections as their only role, and it took 365 days to inspect all their properties. However, with the need for operational efficiencies for organisations industry wide, our discussions identified a quicker solution. By using forms to report on the findings of each property visit, contractors and staff can reduce the administrative burden of conducting these visits. Alternatively, residents could provide feedback themselves, or repairs operatives could provide feedback on areas of the property that fall under their expertise. Using a form allows you to capture a wide array of data, not just about your properties, but about things like diversity data, or additional support needs for each resident.
4. Don’t be 'all things' to your tenants
With limited resources, senior leaders in the housing sector reported that staff sometimes feel like they’re trying to be too many things to too many residents. This puts a huge emphasis on the importance of tenant feedback, so you can listen to residents and the community to understand what they want from their landlord. This allows you to meet the needs of your residents and reduce resource and expenditure on service elements that offer no real value to the tenants in your community. To build this picture, you can also leverage relationships with local authorities, charities, and other organisations to gain a wider understanding of what your organisation can do to meet the needs of the community and improve tenant satisfaction.
The dawn of a new era
During our conversations with housing providers far and wide, it is clear that these key considerations aren’t unknown throughout the sector, and many of these processes are in place in some way or another. However, it can’t be denied that there is room for improvement.
If changes aren’t made there will be consequences, and the regulator has stipulated that they’re cracking down on non-compliance and handing out hefty fines to show that they’re serious. This is the dawn of a new era for social housing, and senior leaders across the sector need to band together to learn from the successes and mistakes of others, and utilise the tools and technologies available to deliver efficiencies during this period of turbulation.
Our next event, aimed at helping unite social housing decision makers and share industry best practices around how to ensure peace of mind during changing times, is taking place on Tuesday 14th May, you can find out more about the session and book your place here. Alternatively, get in touch with the social housing team and we’ll talk to you about how digital solutions can set your organisation up for consumer standards success.