2.2 The Regulator of Social Housing

The Regulator of Social Housing is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by DLUHC. The Regulator undertakes consumer and economic regulation of social housing providers. From 1 April 2024, its consumer regulation role will change and will allow the Regulator to conduct periodic inspections of registered providers.

Unlike the Housing Ombudsman, the Regulator does not have a role in regulating individual issues. Instead, the Regulator’s role involves setting standards that registered providers must meet and holding them to account for meeting their standards. The Regulator looks at an organisational level, seeking assurance that the registered provider has the right systems and processes to enable it to meet the outcomes required by the standards. The Regulator has a range of tools available, including a suite of enforcement powers, which they can use where a provider is unable or unwilling to meet its standards.

The Regulator has recently consulted on a revised suite of standards. These include expectations on health and safety and repairs as well as providing homes that are decent, safe and well-maintained. The draft standards require registered providers to inform the Regulator of any material actual or potential non-compliance with the consumer standards. This would include any breaches of Awaab’s Law that registered providers consider to be a material failure to deliver the outcomes required by the regulator’s standards. Following the introduction of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures standard in April 2023, registered providers are also required to report on a suite of measures that includes measures relating to repairs and the safety and quality of homes.

If social landlords consider themselves to be in breach of the requirements under Awaab’s Law, they should consider whether the breach constitutes a material failure to deliver the outcomes required by the Regulator’s standards and self-refer to the Regulator if so. Where the Regulator considers a provider has significantly failed to deliver the outcomes required by its standards it will take action.