Social housing and the new consumer standards
Published: 28 November 2023
The new consumer standards for social housing will affect everyone living the homes we manage.
The consumer standards are what the Regulator of Social Housing sets out as the specific expectations and outcomes that all registered providers (landlords) must achieve when delivering services for tenants. For most of the homes we manage, Derby City Council is the owner and registered provider.
The standards are at a proposal stage, having just undergone consultation with both landlords and tenants. The final versions of them will come into effect from April 2024.
What are the proposed standards?
There are four standards:
• The Safety and Quality Standard
• The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard
• The Neighbourhood and Community Standard
• The Tenancy Standard
In simple terms, they’re about:
• Providing safe and good quality homes and landlord services
• Being open with tenants and treating them with fairness and respect
• Enabling tenants to access services, easily raise complaints, influence decision making and hold us to account
• Working with partners so tenants can live in safe and well-maintained neighbourhoods
• Fairly allocating homes and managing tenancies
What will this mean for tenants in the homes we manage?
Derby Homes must demonstrate that we are meeting the standards. We have to certify our compliance in our annual accounts and inform the regulator if we do not feel we are complying. The council is ultimately responsible as the registered provider and owner of 12,500+ homes.
We must also ensure we support tenants to scrutinise our services and to hold our Board and Councillors to account.
What can you do?
1. Look out for our news updates on how we think we’re meeting the standards
2. See how we’re performing when we publish our results
3. Take part in surveys to give us your views on how you think we’re doing