The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) published the six new standards it has set for all social housing landlords, effecting more than eight million tenants across England.
In the biggest shake up of social housing regulation in decades, the six standards, drawn up with tenants and landlords up and down the country, will come into effect from 1 April. They cover how landlords need to deal with issues such as tenant involvement and empowerment, repairs and maintenance, rents, quality of accommodation, complaints and antisocial behaviour.
The new standards will apply to nearly 1,800 social housing providers in England - which include housing associations, councils and co-operatives. This means that for the first time tenants will get similar levels of protection and services regardless of who their landlord happens to be.
The TSA will also have new enforcement powers to rely on to ensure tenants get a fair deal, which could include issuing Enforcement Notices and directing the transfer of management.
The TSA's new standards cover the following six areas of landlord responsibility:
The new framework heralds a fundamental shift in how the sector is regulated by:
Where problems are identified and landlords do not meet the standards, the TSA will discuss how the provider is taking ownership for improving their services before using its more formal powers.
Wales
The second stage of consultation for developing a similar regulatory framework in Wales is now underway. This consultation relates to a set of activity standards and is to be a common set applicable to both housing associations and local government housing providers.
The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) will be abolished if the Conservative Party wins the General Election. The announcement was made by Stewart Jackson, Tory MP for Peterborough and Shadow Communnities and Local Government Minister, during a Parliamentary debate.
He informed the House:
"For the avoidance of doubt, a future Conservative Government will abolish the TSA.
"We believe that what is being proposed in terms of the rationale reveals a fundamental lack of trust in tenants and an opinion that they cannot be trusted to work through properly elected boards with professional officers with registered social landlords in terms of the oversight facility.
"We also believe that in respect of the power to extend the order to local authorities, it could be argued, if one was playing devil's advocate, that the best regulator is the voter, who will judge the performance of that local authority as a landlord - or a registered social landlord, to use the new name - whether they are delivering the goods at election time.
"The performance of the TSA has not been good over the past 12 months or so. It was the quango responsible for the extra bureaucracy laid upon council tax payers and central government taxpayers, which paid the Audit Commission £1.8 million to carry out its basic audit function.
"That body paid a public affairs consultancy £100,000 to arrange meetings with influential Ministers. That is the level of waste and duplicity that we see in that new body. It talks about value for money, supporting tenants and core activities at the front line, yet it spends significant amounts of public money on wasteful activities, such as paying a lobbying firm to arrange meetings with Ministers.
"I do not decry the Government's rationale for wanting to improve tenants' democracy, accountability, quality of life and quality of housing - I understand all that. But is establishing a new body the best way to do so? We believe that if there is maladministration, it is proper for Ministers to be responsible for intervening in extremis, for the Local Government Ombudsman to be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that tenants are treated fairly and with equanimity and for the Audit Commission to have a role.
"It could be argued hat the Homes and Communities Agency should have a role across the country on matters of oversight and assessment of the performance of those who used to be called registered social landlords.
"For those reasons, we are committed to abolition. We do not think that the case for the TSA has been made thus far by Ministers in a coherent and comprehensive way."
The TSA issued a statement saying:
"The Tenant Services Authority is aware of the comments made in the House of Commons Committee. Our focus remains on getting on with the important job Parliament has given us - to secure a fair deal for all social housing tenants in England.
"We've worked hard to develop the new standards in partnership with tenants and landlords and we are pleased that both the Government and the Opposition parties support the standards we have produced.
"Having gained a broad consensus from tenants, landlords and lenders on our new regulatory standards, our task is to implement the new framework from 1 April - when our new powers are switched on - to ensure all landlords deliver a fair deal to over eight million people in social housing.
"In these challenging economic times, we are also continuing to ensure sound governance and financial strength within the housing association sector - where every pound we spend saves the taxpayer £15 in lower private lending costs.
"Our job is to deliver that new regulatory approach from April and to show the difference we are making day by day in our work."
