Federation welcomes publication of new regulatory framework for social housing providers
Tuesday 23 March 2010
The National Housing Federation has welcomed the publication of a new regulatory framework for the social housing sector which places service to tenants at the heart of regulation.
The Federation said the Tenant Services Authority's new regulatory regime was a massive step forward from previous approaches and praised its focus on outcomes rather than processes.
The framework is based on the principle of co-regulation, which recognises the primacy of boards as the bodies responsible for the performance of housing providers.
The Federation also welcomed the fact that, as part of the TSA’s commitment to disengage regulation from matters of process, 54 old Housing Corporation circulars are being "retired" without replacement.
Another key development is that the new framework will apply across the entire social housing domain, covering local authorities and ALMOs as well as housing associations.
This is the first time that all providers have come under the protection of a single regulator.
The Federation, however said it was disappointed the Government had applied this approach inconsistently, with marked differences in the regulation of local authorities compared with housing associations.
Federation chief executive David Orr said: “We welcome the publication of the new regulatory framework, which is driven by the desire to improve services to tenants and rightly focuses on outcomes. This is an approach the Federation fully supports and had been calling for.
“The challenge now is to implement the new framework in a way that ensures that it delivers on its promise.
“The Federation looks forward to working with the TSA to ensure that this new outcome-focused, co-regulatory approach becomes embedded at all levels of the regulator’s engagement with the sector.”
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