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Government’s new social housing paper sets out a vision to expand supply and improve tenants’ rights

15 August 2018

Yesterday the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its green paper “A new deal for social housing” setting out how it intends to improve both the supply and quality of social housing as well as improving the experience of social renting for tenants.

Following on from the Grenfell tragedy and, as the paper states, a failure of “successive Governments of all political colours” to consider the role social housing plays in a “modern mixed-tenure housing market” the report recognises the need for a “fundamental shift in the state’s approach to social housing and the people who call it home”.

The paper covers five key principles:

  • Providing safe and decent homes – Referencing the Hackitt Review, the paper calls for new approaches to engaging with residents on safety issues, as well as a review of the Decent Homes Standard.
  • Improving and speeding up how complaints are resolved – The paper outlines that further consultation will be undertaken with landlords to see how waiting periods can be reduced and handling can be improved.
  • Empowering residents and improving landlord accountability – The paper calls for data on landlord performance to be made easily accessible for residents, as well as league tables which cover several KPIs including resident engagement, complaint handling, safety and repairs. This would also cover giving the regulator more power to scrutinise the performance of Local Authority landlords and any arrangements they enter into.
  • Tackling stigma and celebrating communities – A number of current initiatives are reviewed to assess their effectiveness in reducing the perceived stigma of being a social housing resident. This also includes need for good design that is indistinguishable from other tenures when building new affordable housing.
  • Expanding supply and supporting home ownership – The paper reaffirms the target of 300,000 new homes annually, set out in last year’s Housing White Paper and proposes relaxing the rules on borrowing for local authorities.

The paper also notes that the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has been designed to ensure that the planning system “can deliver high quality buildings and places” and that the guidance, published later this year, will ensure this is applied to all social housing.

Consultation on the green paper will continue until 6 November 2018.