Self-referral to the Regulator of Social Housing
As part of our commitment to improve our housing services and support to tenants and leaseholders, we referred ourselves to the Regulator of Social Housing in September 2024 to seek advice on how we are performing against new regulatory standards.
The following questions and answers explain more about this process.
The Regulator of Social Housing sets out the regulatory standards that landlords must deliver under the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. It regulates for a viable, efficient and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.
The Social Housing (Regulations) Act 2023, which came into force on 1 April 2024, introduced four new consumer standards, which apply to all registered providers of social housing, including local authorities. These place an emphasis on decent homes, tenant safety, tenant engagement, transparency and a duty on landlords to highlight any areas of non-compliance to the Regulator.
Under the new standards landlords need to:
- ensure tenants are safe in their homes
- listen to tenants’ complaints and respond promptly to put things right
- be accountable to tenants and treat them with fairness and respect
- know more about the condition of every home and the needs of the people who live in them
- collect and use data effectively across a range of areas, including repairs
Following an expansion of its powers, from 1 April 2024, the Regulator began carrying out regulatory inspections of social landlords. Read more on what these inspections involve.
The Regulator of Social Housing publishes regulatory judgements to show how well a landlord is delivering its services compared to an agreed set of consumer standards. They provide a consumer grading from C1 to C4.
The Regulator of Social Housing can give four consumer grades, which mean:
- C1 - Landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.
- C2 - There are some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed.
- C3 - There are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.
- C4 - There are very serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord must make fundamental changes so that improved outcomes are delivered.
Following a comprehensive internal review, the Council referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing in September 2024 to seek advice in relation to its performance against the recently adopted consumer standards.
It is not uncommon for local authorities to refer themselves to the Regulator with recent examples including Bristol City Council, North Yorkshire Council, Southwark Council, Guildford Borough Council, Lewisham Council, Redbridge Council and West Northamptonshire Council.
The decision to self-refer reflects our commitment to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement. The Council has had regular contact with the Regulator, which confirmed at the end of November 2024 that it would begin the first of its planned programme of four-yearly landlord inspections.
Recognising areas where we need to improve, we have already submitted a draft housing improvement plan to the Regulator for review. The delivery of the improvement work is being overseen by a new Housing Improvement Board that includes tenant and cross-party councillor representation.
The inspection process, now underway, will include inspectors spending two days visiting Swindon in mid-February 2025 before the final inspection report is published in Spring 2025.
The decision to self-refer and subsequent inspection covers all of the Council’s properties. We are talking to the Regulator about the whole service, not individual properties.
Although many properties are well maintained, we know that there are issues with the condition of some of our homes. We have already submitted a draft housing improvement plan to the Regulator for review, to address known issues.
We have submitted a draft housing improvement plan to the Regulator for review. This will evolve to take account of the findings of the inspection currently underway. We will publish a final housing improvement plan in Spring 2025, setting out the actions we are taking along with timescales.
The Regulator will review the reports and data we share with it and can ask us to take specific action where necessary.
This will help us to improve the services and support we provide to tenants and leaseholders.
Having referred ourselves to the Regulator and asked for their advice, we welcome their independent assessment of areas where we need to improve.
The Regulator takes a system-wide view of the services we provide.
It will not provide resolutions to individual disputes between landlords and tenants.
If there is any information which you would think is important to share with the Regulator, please contact them on:
- email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk
- or call 0300 124 5225
If you are a council tenant and there is a problem in your property that is our responsibility to fix, you can request a repair.
Find guidance on self-repairs or request a repair online.