co-regulation, localism and you Deborah Ilott

1. co-regulation, localism and you Deborah Ilott

2. Contents • How regulation is changing • Tenant scrutiny • Serious detriment • Co-regulatory behaviours • Implications for providers

3. Social housing regulation is changing • TSA’s economic and consumer regulation functions are being transferred to a statutory regulation committee within the Homes & Communities Agency • This committee will be legally separated from HCA’s investment functions • Maintaining lender and investor confidence, and protecting taxpayers remains vital

4. Other changes to social housing policy • The Localism Bill will implement other changes including: • Reforms to allocations policy - greater powers for local authorities to decide • Greater flexibility of tenancies - shorter, fixed term tenancies, from two years in length • Powers of the HCA in London transferred to the Mayor and GLA

5. A challenging operating context • Maximising value for money • Some local authorities have already, or are currently, considering bringing their ALMOs back in-house • HRA reform brings greater independence but there is a wide variation in how councils will start self-financing • Welfare reform

6. In future the TSA will have a ‘backstop’ consumer regulation role • Our focus will be on setting clear service standards for social landlords • It will be for providers to decide how best they meet the new localism agenda

7. There will be increased emphasis on tenant scrutiny and local accountability • Development of tenant panels • Tenant Empowerment Programme continuing in 2011/12 • Democratic filter – complaints will continue to be dealt with by providers in the first instance with an increased advocacy role for MPs and Councillors • Enhanced role of the independent housing ombudsman

8. Developing tenant scrutiny • Local arrangements should enable tenants to exercise real power to hold the organisation to account • Drive service improvement • Get redress when things go wrong. The mechanism for effective accountability, be it a tenant scrutiny panel or some other approach, is best determined by dialogue between each social landlord and its tenants to decide what works best for them John Bryant, National Housing Federation

9. Tenant Scrutiny Model

10. Determining the serious detriment threshold • From April 2012 we will only exercise our powers on consumer standards where there is ‘serious detriment’ • Our starting point is to consider serious detriment in terms of the impact on tenants: • Health and safety • Mental or emotional health • Loss of home • Discrimination • Loss of rights

11. Co-regulatory champions Co-regulatory champions fund Providers with excellent scrutiny mechanisms to share good practice via events, study visits, case studies/how to guides

12. Developing co-regulatory principles and behaviours • TSA’s backstop consumer regulation role and the localism changes mean Registered Providers’ governance arrangements will be even more important • Good governance means • Being focused on the purpose of the Provider and on outcomes for tenants • Board members and staff working together to a common purpose with clearly defined roles • Transparent decision making, subject to effective scrutiny • Building both board and staff capacity • Engaging with tenants to ensure robust accountability

13. Taking the opportunities of co-regulation • Co-regulation and self-regulation do not mean no regulation • The need to be self aware and constantly test the quality of your services through co-regulation with tenants • Boards must be ready to accept major new responsibilities, keeping tenant scrutiny at the heart of good governance.

14. 39 pilots from 181 applications – 12 months ahead of the game Mixture of HAs, ALMOs, LAs, TMOs Covered tenant empowerment, customer service, quality of accommodation, repairs and maintenance, allocations, estate management, ASB, governance Broad approaches Place – local offer made by group of landlords based on a place (11 pilots) Demographic – Needs of customers, e.g. older people or tenants of supported housing (6 pilots) Organisational – Local offers based on own housing stock only (17 pilots) Local Offers

15. Bristol – developed a local standard for disabled adaptations across the city Calico - developed right first time for repairs and local scrutiny and engagement methods Hanover – gives tenants choice on a scheme-by-scheme basis over repairs standards including response times, targets, costs and contractor Sentinel – cross-Hampshire forum to agree standards for empowerment and involvement, including residents’ survey and benchmarking Local Offers Trailblazers