Accountability, Engagement and Building Safety – The Future is Now

With Building Safety Bill due to come into force around May 2022, the Regulator of Social Housing is beginning to set out their position on it and how they see the future for Registered Providers.

The Building Safety Bill sets out clear levels of accountability and responsibility. That, coupled with the white paper on Social Housing, shows a cultural shift to a proactive, rather than reactive, level of social housing consumer regulation.

Consumer Standards are changing and the message from a Regulatory is very clear – this process needs to be started now.

With all the changes planned for 2022, there is no doubt that Registered Providers need to start to develop the internal cultural change needed.

The main question remains, what should Social Landlords be doing now? Here are some key areas to consider:

• Do you have an appropriate tenant engagement policy? As an RP, there is a clear and strong move towards tenant engagement. Tenants need identifiable persons to raise queries and concerns with, and in turn RPs need to be able to understand and respond to these concerns. Engagement is at the core of all the changes and a clear policy for your organisation should be put in place as soon as possible.
• Is Safety & Compliance given the priority it needs? Traditionally, it may not have been that all RPs have given sufficient time to this area, but this will now need to change as it becomes a mainstay. Does your organisation have the rights roles, and is safety and compliance reaching the levels it needs to?
• Do you have good enough data on all of your stock? Data is crucial to successfully implementing change, but does your organisation hold enough on what it currently has? Does it provide sufficient information to allow a true assessment of the conditions, and therefore future developments and maintenance needs across all of the owned stock?
• Does your ogranisation fully understand how it can enforce its obligations? Naturally, a huge barrier is tenant engagement. Do your colleagues know exactly what tools they have available to them if a tenant is not complying with their obligations, and are they utilising them?

If you’d like to discuss this further, or find out more on what your organisation can do, don’t hesitate to pick up the phone or email our Head of Compliance, Building Safety and Decarbonisation, Andrew Fairman on 07792288169 or andrewfairman@msbsolicitors.co.uk.