ARCH has submitted responses to two recent consultation
papers issued by the Regulator of Social Housing which have
important implications for local authority landlords - on the new
consumer standards which they will be expected to meet, and the
fees that the Regulator plans to charge, from April 2024.
ARCH has generally welcomed the new consumer standards, subject to
a number of concerns about the detail, but expressed serious
concern that neither DLUHC nor the Regulator have given adequate
consideration to the costs of complying with them. Our full
response is here.
On fees, the Regulator proposes to recover the full costs
of regulation from local authority landlords by way of an annual
charge of £7-8 per property. ARCH has argued that this is
inappropriate and imposes an unacceptable burden that falls
ultimately on council tenants. We argue that any decision to
charge fees should be deferred for at least 2 years to allow time
for a full value-for-money scrutiny of the Regulator's work. Our
full response is here.
ARCH is currently working on responses to two further
consultations:
- DLUHC has asked for comments by 22 November on a new Direction
to the RSH on the provision of information to tenants on tenants'
rights and complaints (see ARCH Bulletin 29 September
2024)
Member authorities are encouraged submit views they would like
to see included in ARCH's responses to either of these
consultations to ARCH Policy Adviser Matthew Warburton (matthew.warburton@arch-housing.org.uk).