The Local Government Association is launching a new peer challenge to support stock-owning councils to improve their management of social housing, in the context of the expectations outlined in the Government’s social housing white paper and recently published Social Housing Regulation Bill.
The ‘charter for social housing residents’, published last year, set out plans to reinforce the Regulator of Social Housing's consumer regulation objective, allow residents greater visibility of how well their landlord is performing and the decisions it is making and establish a new arm of the Regulator of Social Housing to ‘proactively’ regulate on consumer standards including the quality of homes, repairs, and complaints handling.
The LGA’s peer challenge, part of its sector-support offer to councils, will be delivered by a team of dynamic and experienced housing officers and member peers.
The scope of the peer challenge can be modified to meet the individual needs of each councils and will support councils to reflect on and learn how to improve the service provided to social housing residents; prepare for the new consumer regulation regime and identify and share best practice across local government.
South Holland District Council participated in the pilot peer challenge in February this year and will be sharing their experiences at the Innovation Zone at the LGA’s Annual Conference Innovation Zone, in Harrogate, today.
Cllr Peter Fleming, Chair of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, said: “Councils support measures that ensure that the voice of all social housing residents is heard, and they are committed to improving standards and empowering and supporting tenants. This new peer challenge will support councils to deliver on these expectations, and help to assess the strengths of the council and their partners and identify areas for improvement in the future.
“Councils are proud of their housing and the individuals and families that call it home and are determined that their tenants should have the security of a safe and well-maintained home with any issues quickly and satisfactorily dealt with.”
Lord Gary Porter, Leader of South Holland District Council, said: “Decent, safe, secure and affordable housing is at the cornerstone of everything local government does and providing it is one of the biggest challenges we face.
“It’s important that our homes are as good as they can be, and it’s equally true that our teams that look after the homes our residents live in must be as good as they can be too. This peer challenge is a great way that we can all make sure we are up to that challenge.”
