Consultation outcome

Provision of information to tenants: Direction to the Social Housing Regulator on tenants’ rights and complaints

Updated 19 January 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Applies to England

Scope of the consultation

Topic of this consultation:

This consultation seeks views on a proposed direction from the Secretary of State to the Regulator of Social Housing (“the Regulator”), using powers under section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (“the 2008 Act”) as amended.

The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 requires the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to give a direction to the Regulator for the purpose of securing that registered providers of social housing are required to provide their tenants of low-cost rental accommodation with information about:

(a) their tenants’ rights in connection with the low-cost rental accommodation and with facilities or services provided in connection with that accommodation, and

(b) how their tenants can make a complaint against them.

Scope of this consultation:

Section 197 of the 2008 Act gives the Secretary of State the power to direct the Regulator of Social Housing (‘the Regulator’) in relation to the provision of information to their tenants of social housing concerning the accommodation, facilities or services provided in connection with social housing. Once issued, the Regulator must comply with the direction. We propose to use this power to direct the Regulator to set standards relating to the provision of information to tenants on:

(a) making complaints;

(b) tenants’ rights; and

(c) relevant regulatory requirements.

These directions will apply to the social housing stock of all registered providers of social housing, unless specifically exempted. The term ‘registered providers’ encompasses:

• private registered providers, including housing associations;
• local authority registered providers (i.e. local authorities with social housing).

The proposed direction is included in Annex B.

We are not consulting, at this point, on any other changes to the Directions on Regulatory Standards. It is the government’s intention to consult on directions at a future date on quality of accommodation, access to information, tenure and competency and conduct.

The rent direction, and associated policy statement, and directions relating to Mutual Exchange and Tenant Involvement, have been consulted on separately.

Geographical scope:

These proposals relate to providers of social housing based in England registered with the Regulator of Social Housing and subject to its regulatory standards. They will mainly affect tenants of social housing in England.

Impact on the sector:

To support our assessment of the impact on the sector, we engaged with private registered providers (PRPs) via a survey issued by the National Housing Federation (NHF) to its members. In this survey, we asked PRPs to estimate the likely costs they would face over a 10-year period in order to meet commitments associated with the measures set out in this consultation document. Respondents included both small and large providers, and these responses have supported the development of our estimates for both PRPs and local authority registered providers (LARPs) of social housing.

We have considered a wide range of costs associated with meeting these requirements, which are outlined below. Where we have made additional assumptions to supplement evidence gathered through our survey of PRPs, we have applied a range of scenarios to account for sensitivities which could change costs faced by the sector, ensuring estimates lie at the higher end of a plausible range. We are seeking to strengthen our understanding of these costs and the assumptions behind them using this consultation.

The government’s New Burdens Doctrine is clear that anything which could issue a new expectation on local government should be assessed for new burdens. The Department will conduct a new burdens assessment of the changes set out in this consultation, assess their impact on local government, and, where necessary, fully fund the net additional cost of new burdens placed on local councils. New burdens for these measures will only be paid to local authority registered providers without a housing revenue account.

In total we estimate a net impact to PRPs of £3.6 million per year (in present value terms) over the appraisal period. Applying a consistent methodology and assumptions derived from the survey to LARPs, we estimate a net impact of £1.8 million per year (in present value terms) over the appraisal period. The cost impacts fall into the below categories:

Familiarisation:

These are costs which relate to the familiarising of staff with new requirements resulting from the changes laid out in this document over a 10-year appraisal period (for example, setting up new processes and training staff).

At present there are 234 large PRPs (with a stock volume of greater than 1,000 social dwellings) and 1,162 small PRPs (1,000 social dwellings or fewer) in the sector. Using the same thresholds, there are 163 large LARPs and 86 small LARPs in operation across the sector.

On average, large providers in the survey indicated they would need 354 hours per annum to familiarise their staff with new requirements, while smaller providers predicted an annual burden of 28 hours.

An average hourly wage cost of £22.26 was calculated using 2022 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data for the familiarisation of officers, managers, and senior managers with the new requirements. We applied this cost to the average time requirements submitted by both larger and smaller providers who responded to the survey, and then scaled this up to meet the volume of the larger and smaller providers in the sector. This resulted in total annual familiarisation costs of £1.84 million for larger PRPs and £711,000 for smaller PRPs across the appraisal period. The total annual impact on PRPs is therefore £2.55 million.

We quantified the equivalent costs for local authority registered providers, applying the assumptions derived from the survey analysis and maintaining the same methodology, accounting for differences in the total number of smaller and larger LARPs. This results in an annual cost of £1.34 million to local authorities.

The combined annual impact on the whole sector of familiarisation costs across the appraisal period is thus £3.89 million.

In line with survey responses analysed, estimated familiarisation costs occur within each year of the 10-year appraisal period. However, it is not typical for familiarisation costs to recur beyond the first year of a new policy’s implementation, and we are seeking views on these costs (alongside the other cost strands outlined) via this consultation.

Preparation costs:

These costs relate to the need to prepare and send new types of information to tenants. The survey sample used for analysis suggested PRPs would spend on average 27.5 hours of staff time in year 1, and on average 20.5 hours in subsequent years 2 to 10. Multiplying to align with the number of PRPs in the sector means that PRPs would need to spend 38,415 hours on preparation in year 1 and 28,596 in years 2 to 10. We applied an average staff wage cost of £22.35 for this activity resulting in an average annual cost of £661,000 (£859,000 in year 1 and £639,000 in years 2 to 10).

Applying the same assumptions and methodology to LARPs resulted in an average annual cost of £330,000.

The combined average annual impact on the whole sector for preparation costs across the appraisal period is thus £991,000.

Legal costs:

These costs relate to the costs required for lawyers to undertake an analysis of the relevant and applicable legal rights that a provider is required to provide information to their tenants on, in order to meet the requirements set out in the direction.

On average, the survey sample we analysed indicated providers would need around 10.2 hours of legal time in year 1 of the appraisal period and 6.8 hours in subsequent years. We modelled a time cost for lawyers using 2022 ASHE data relating to an average hourly salary for a member of staff working in regulatory compliance or a similar role, including non-wage costs, of £26.19.

Calculating average costs for providers in the survey and multiplying these to align with the number of PRPs in the sector gives an average annual cost of £261,000 (£373,000 in year 1 and £249,000 in years 2 to 10).

Applying the same assumptions and methodology to the 249 LARPs in the sector resulted in an average annual cost of cost of £47,000.

The combined average annual impact on the whole sector for legal costs across the appraisal period is thus £308,000.

Postal costs:

Around 53% of respondents in the survey sample we analysed indicated they would send information to their tenants by post, which will incur additional costs not accounted for in the preparation cost strand set out above in this summary of impacts. We worked out the average cost to send a letter based on similar costs faced by public sector officials and adding VAT, alongside the cost of second class postage itself which we valued at £0.75 per letter using Royal Mail prices. This gives a total postal cost of £1.33 per dwelling owned/managed by a provider.

Multiplying this cost by the 3.14 million dwellings owned/managed by PRPs and 1.57 million owned/managed by LARPs, combined with the assumption that 53% of these households will be contacted by post, results in a total cost of £2.2 million for PRPs and £1.1 million for LARPs, or a combined total sector cost of £3.3 million, in year 1 of the period.

This assumes that in year 1, providers will send additional letters to all tenants, rather than including this additional information in other planned correspondences. In years 2 to 10 we have assumed a higher tendency for providers to include additional information they will be required to send to tenants in posted correspondence they would already be sending. We have applied a conservative assumption that 50% of landlords will choose to communicate with tenants as part of already planned correspondence fewer letters posted in years 2 to 10, bringing the postage costs down by the same proportion in these years of the appraisal period.

We have also considered that in most cases providers will not be obliged to write to the majority of their tenants every year on these requirements. This is because we do not anticipate tenants’ rights or providers’ complaints processes to materially change year by year. We have made a conservative assumption that providers may need to write to tenants at most every other year in the appraisal period, and that within any given year around 5% of the social rented sector moves home. This means that in alternating years of the 10-year period (combined with the 50% reduction in postage costs every single year), the cost of sending letters to tenants will be around £55,000 for the PRP sector and £28,000 for the local authority sector; and £1.1 million for the PRP sector and £551,000 for the local authority sector respectively.

This works out at an average annual postal cost of £690,000 per annum for PRPs and £345,000 per annum for LARPs across the period. This results in a combined total average annual sector cost of £1.03 million per annum. We are also seeking views on the assumptions made above through the consultation.

Monitoring and review:

These directions form one part of the changes we are making to the consumer regulatory regime. The department will work with the Regulator to conduct a full review of the new regime after a 4-year regulatory cycle is complete.

Basic information

Body/bodies responsible for the consultation:

Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)

Statutory consultees:

• the Regulator of Social Housing
• the Homes and Communities Agency (known as Homes England)
• the Greater London Authority
• bodies representing the interests of local housing authorities
• bodies representing the interests of tenants of social housing
• bodies representing the interests of registered providers
• the Charity Commission

The department will consider any consultation responses received from other interested bodies and individuals.

Duration:

This consultation will last for 8 weeks from 27 September to 22 November 2023.

Enquiries:

For any enquiries about the consultation please contact: socialhousingdirectioninfoprovision@levellingup.gov.uk

How to respond:

Please note that we may publish every response to this consultation. Therefore please ensure that your response does not include any material that you are not content for us to publish.

You may respond by completing an online survey

Alternatively, you can email your response to the questions in this consultation to:socialhousingdirectioninfoprovision@levellingup.gov.uk

If you are responding in writing, please make it clear which questions you are responding to.

Written responses should be sent to:

Social Housing Regulatory Direction on Information Provision
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Floor 3 (Mailpoint B12)
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Please submit your response through only one of the above routes.

When you reply it would be very useful if you could confirm whether you are replying as an individual or submitting an official response on behalf of an organisation and include:

• your name
• your position (if applicable)
• the name of organisation (if applicable)
• an address (including postcode)
• an email address
• a contact telephone number

Introduction

1. The tragic death of Awaab Ishak reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that social housing tenants can hold their landlords to account. The government is committed to ensure tenants are fully protected, have decent quality homes and are treated with fairness and respect. To help achieve this, it has committed to implementing a proactive consumer regulatory regime for social housing.

2. The Secretary of State has the power to direct the Regulator on certain aspects of its regulatory standards.^{[footnote 1]} The Social Housing (Regulation) Act introduced two new powers of direction: provision of information to tenants, and competency and conduct. This consultation sets out proposals to direct the Regulator to introduce requirements relating to the provision of information to tenants relating to complaints and tenants’ rights.

3. These proposals were part of the Awaab’s Law campaign led by the Manchester Evening News and Shelter. More widely, the government is ensuring that hazards in social homes must be addressed quickly. This will be the subject of a future consultation.

Overview of the proposed direction

4. The direction will ensure that all registered providers of social housing must tell their tenants about their rights and how they can complain if they are being let down. These complaints will be taken seriously, and there will be consequences for housing providers who fail to meet their obligations. Tenants will know they can hold their landlords to account.

5. To achieve this, the proposed direction will require the Regulator of Social Housing to introduce standards relating to the provision of information to tenants. Specifically, these standards will require the Regulator to require providers to provide information to their tenants on:

a. their tenants’ rights in connection with their homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes;

b. how their tenants can make a complaint against them; and

c. relevant regulatory requirements in connection with their homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes.

6. The draft directions are attached to this consultation at Annex B. Subject to the outcome of this consultation, we will formally issue the direction to the Regulator.

7. The direction will be binding on the Regulator.

8. The Regulator of Social Housing launched a consultation on wider changes to the consumer standards in July 2023. The contents of this Direction are not the subject of the Regulator’s consultation.

9. The direction disapplies the requirement for the Regulator to conduct a statutory consultation on revisions to the standards that relate to this direction, which will mean the new requirements can be introduced more quickly. Following the outcome of this consultation, we expect the draft directions will be reflected in the new consumer standards published by the Regulator without further consultation.

10. These standards will apply to all registered providers of social housing.

11. The proposed directions have no pre-determined end date but they may be subject to change or revision. Any further amendments or changes will require a further consultation.

12. We invite your views on the questions listed and the draft directions by 22 November 2023.

Context

Legal framework for social housing

13. The statutory framework for social housing regulation is set out in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. In brief:

• the Regulator has an economic and a consumer objective
• with regard to consumer regulation, the Regulator is responsible for regulating social housing provided by registered providers
• the term registered providers encompasses:
  • local authorities who have social housing
  • other bodies that have registered with the Regulator (known as ‘private registered providers’)
• ‘social housing’ comprises low cost rental accommodation (for example homes let at Social Rent or Affordable Rent) and low cost home ownership accommodation

14. The Regulator currently has the power to set regulatory standards on a range of economic and consumer matters. Registered providers are required to comply with these standards. In relation to certain matters, the Secretary of State has the power to direct the Regulator to set standards, to direct on the content of those standards, or direct the Regulator to have regard to specified objectives when setting standards.

Changes to the regulatory regime

15. At present, the Regulator takes a proactive approach to regulating its economic standards, which contrasts with the reactive approach the Regulator is required to take for its consumer standards where currently the serious detriment test is in place (meaning the Regulator can only intervene where a breach or potential breach of a consumer standard has caused or may cause tenants serious harm).

16. The government is reforming the Regulator’s consumer remit; removing the serious detriment test to lower the threshold for intervention on consumer issues, and facilitating the introduction of proactive regulation against the consumer standards. We are also expanding the powers of the Regulator to ensure it has the right tools to effectively carry out this enhanced role. Changes brought about by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 will mean the Regulator can intervene in a greater range of cases where providers have failed to comply with consumer standards.

17. The Act introduces a new objective for the Regulator to require registered providers to be transparent with their tenants and extends its standard-setting powers to cover information and transparency. The Act will also extend the Secretary of State’s powers of direction to cover the provision of information to tenants concerning the accommodation, facilities and services provided in connection with social housing as well as competence and conduct of individuals providing services on behalf of registered providers.

Approach to regulation

18. The Review of social housing regulation: call for evidence and Social Housing White Paper concluded that the co-regulatory approach was effective, putting fundamental responsibility for effective service delivery with the registered provider, alongside scrutiny of compliance and monitoring of performance by the Regulator.

19. It also concluded that co-regulation ensures a focus on driving good outcomes for existing and future tenants. By setting clear outcomes for registered providers without prescribing how these outcomes are met, co-regulation can mean that registered providers are held accountable for meeting outcomes in the way that best meets local circumstances and the needs of tenants, and encourages continuous improvement. Therefore, the draft directions are generally outcome-focused rather than prescriptive, except for areas where we believe government policy can only be achieved in a prescriptive way.

Commentary on proposed directions

Complaints

20. We want tenants to know how to raise a complaint about their landlord, so that when things do go wrong, landlords are held accountable.

21. The Regulator’s current Tenant Involvement and Empowerment standard requires registered providers to “have an approach to complaints that is clear, simple and accessible that ensures that complaints are resolved promptly, politely and fairly”. The Regulator has now launched a consultation on a revised set of consumer standards and will be updating them following the consultation.

22. Where a tenant does have a complaint about their landlord, their first course of action should be to go through the landlord’s complaints process.

23. Where tenants are not satisfied with the outcome of this process, the matter can be escalated to the Housing Ombudsman to investigate individual complaints from tenants.

24. The government has strengthened the law, to ensure tenants’ complaints are listened to and dealt with quickly and fairly. The Social Housing (Regulation) Act gives new powers for the Housing Ombudsman to intervene when an investigation into a particular complaint identifies wider ranging issues.

25. Awareness of the Ombudsman is rising and this is reflected in the year-on-year increases in cases referred to it. This has been driven, in part, by our nationwide campaign, ‘Make Things Right’, which has reached millions of social housing residents, informing them of how they can make a complaint and access the Housing Ombudsman Service.

26. We want to continue to raise awareness of the Ombudsman and how tenants can make complaints in order to resolve problems with their landlord.

27. This proposed direction will work alongside these changes and the Regulator’s expectations on registered providers.

28. The proposed direction would require landlords to provide information to tenants on how they can make a complaint about their landlord, and their complaints policy and complaints handling process.

29. The intended outcome of this direction is to ensure that all tenants understand how to make a complaint, and their landlord’s policy for dealing with complaints. This will better allow tenants to hold their landlords to account where they have an issue.

30. The draft direction requires the information provided to tenants to be accessible. While landlords will have flexibility in determining the most appropriate way to communicate this information to their tenants, this is intended to ensure that all tenants are able to access information about complaints in a way that they understand, without barriers to comprehension.

31. A substantial number of providers already provide information to their tenants on how to make a complaint and the process followed. This direction would ensure that all providers do so.

Question 1: Do you agree with the requirements in 3(1)(c) and (d) of the draft direction (Annex B) for registered providers to provide tenants with information on how to make a complaint about their landlord and about their landlord’s complaints policy and complaints handling process?

Tenants’ rights and relevant regulatory requirements

32. We want to empower tenants, and provide them with meaningful opportunities to hold their landlord to account for the quality of accommodation and the services they provide.

33. The tragic case of Awaab Ishak has underlined the need for government to drive up the quality of social housing, and to rebalance the relationship between tenants and landlords.

34. Landlords must act to protect their tenants. But this case was a reminder that social tenants need to be empowered to understand their rights and the requirements their landlords must fulfil – to enable them to hold landlords to account where they fall short.

35. The proposed direction would direct the Regulator to set requirements within their consumer standards requiring landlords to provide their tenants with accessible information about their rights and relevant regulatory requirements in connection with their homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes.

36. Specifically, the draft direction will require the standard to require providers to provide information on relevant tenants’ rights in connection with tenants’ homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes, and on relevant regulatory requirements that registered providers must meet in connection with those things.

37. A number of rights and regulatory requirements are applicable to all social housing tenants, such as the requirement for the landlord to provide a home that meets the Decent Homes Standard. However, different tenancies and provisions often have different rights and requirements associated with them.

38. The draft direction requires the provider to provide information to the tenant on “relevant” regulatory requirements. This means that the landlord must consider which requirements apply to the specific tenant, and to provide the appropriate information accordingly.

39. The draft direction lists a number of rights and requirements that providers must provide information to their tenants on where applicable. This list includes key rights and requirements, such as the requirement for the landlord to provide a home that meets the Decent Homes Standard, and the rights of disabled tenants to reasonable adjustments.

40. The direction is worded to clarify that the list of rights regulatory requirements that must be provided is not an exclusive list. The intention is that landlords should consider any other rights and requirements relevant to the tenant in determining what information it is appropriate to provide.

41. The draft direction requires the information provided to tenants to be accessible. While landlords will have flexibility in determining the most appropriate way to communicate this information to their tenants, this is intended to ensure that all tenants are able to access information about their rights in a way that they understand, without barriers to comprehension.

42. This direction will help to ensure that registered providers of social housing can be effectively held to account by their tenants for the homes and services they provide.

Question 2: Do you agree with the approach to the direction on the provision of information on tenants’ rights and regulatory requirements, as set out in paragraphs 32-42?

Question 3: Do you agree that the rights and regulatory requirements included in 3(2) of the draft direction (Annex B) are appropriate?

Assessment of costs faced by the sector

43. We have provided a summary of the costs we think that the sector is likely to face in the ‘Impact on the Sector’ section of this document.

44. To ensure these impacts are tested rigorously and robustly, we are also consulting to seek views on the various strands of costs outlined in this section of this document.

Question 4: Do you agree with the likely costs associated with meeting commitments associated with the new requirements, as summarised in our assessment of the impact on the sector?

About this consultation

This consultation document and consultation process have been planned to adhere to the consultation principles issued by the Cabinet Office.

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they represent, and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions when they respond.

Information provided in response to this consultation will be published to comply with section 197(8) of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. Names of individual respondents will not be published. In addition, responses may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), the UK General Data Protection Regulation, and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Due to the legal requirement to publish responses, we are not able to guarantee confidentiality in respect of your response. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the department.

In addition, information provided in response to this consultation may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and UK data protection legislation). In certain circumstances this may therefore include personal data when required by law.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will at all times process your personal data in accordance with UK data protection legislation and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties. A full privacy notice is included below.

Individual responses will not be acknowledged unless specifically requested.

Your opinions are valuable to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this document and respond.

Are you satisfied that this consultation has followed the consultation principles? If not or you have any other observations about how we can improve the process please contact us via the complaints procedure.

Annex A: Personal data

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under UK data protection legislation.

Note that this section only refers to personal data (your name, contact details and any other information that relates to you or another identified or identifiable individual personally) not the content otherwise of your response to the consultation.

1. The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk or by writing to the following address:

Data Protection Officer
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

2. Why we are collecting your personal data

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the consultation process, so that we can contact you regarding your response and for statistical purposes. We may also use it to contact you about related matters.

We will collect your IP address if you complete a consultation online. We may use this to ensure that each person only completes a survey once. We will not use this data for any other purpose.

Sensitive types of personal data

Please do not share criminal offence data or special category personal data if we have not asked for it unless absolutely necessary for the purposes of your consultation response. By ‘special category personal data’, we mean information about a living individual’s:

• race
• ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• genetics
• biometrics
• health (including disability-related information)
• sex life; or
• sexual orientation

By ‘criminal offence data’, we mean information relating to a living individual’s criminal convictions or offences or related security measures.

3. Our legal basis for processing your personal data

Information provided in response to this consultation will be published to comply with section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. Names of individual respondents will not be published. In addition, responses may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), the UK General Data Protection Regulation, and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Due to the legal requirement to publish responses, we are not able to guarantee confidentiality in respect of your response. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the department. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (“DLUHC”) will process your personal data in accordance with the law and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.

The collection and publication of your personal data is lawful under article 6(1)(c) and (8)(b) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation as it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which DLUHC is subject. The relevant legal obligation is the obligation in s197(4) and (8)(a) Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 for the Secretary of State to consult certain persons prior to giving a direction under that section of that Act.

Where necessary for the purposes of this consultation, our lawful basis for the processing of any special category personal data or criminal offence data (terms explained under ‘Sensitive Types of Data’) which you submit in response to this consultation is as follows. The relevant lawful basis for the processing of special category personal data is Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (‘substantial public interest’), and schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘statutory etc and government purposes’). The relevant lawful basis in relation to personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences data is likewise provided by schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

4. With whom we will be sharing your personal data

DLUHC may appoint a ‘data processor’, acting on behalf of the department and under our instruction, to help analyse the responses to this consultation. Where we do we will ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of the data protection legislation.

5. For how long we will keep your personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period

Your personal data will be held for 2 years from the closure of the consultation unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point.

6. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, restriction

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have considerable say over what happens to it. You have the right:

a. to see what data we have about you and ask to access it

b. to ask us to stop using your data, but keep it on record

c. to ask to have your data corrected if it is incorrect or incomplete

d. to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law. You can contact the ICO online, or telephone 0303 123 1113.

Please contact us at the following address if you wish to exercise the rights listed above, except the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO: dataprotection@communities.gov.uk or

Knowledge and Information Access Team
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

7. Your personal data will not be sent overseas

8. Your personal data will not be used for any automated decision making

9. Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system

We use a third-party system, Citizen Space, to collect consultation responses. In the first instance your personal data will be stored on their secure UK-based server. Your personal data will be transferred to our secure government IT system as soon as possible, and it will be stored there for two years before it is deleted unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point.

Annex B: Draft Direction on the Regulatory Standards (Provision of Information) 2023

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 197(2A)(b) and (c) of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, and as required by section 25 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, gives the following Direction.

In accordance with section 197(3) of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, in deciding whether to give this Direction the Secretary of State has, in particular, had regard to the Regulator of Social Housing’s fundamental objectives.

Before giving this Direction the Secretary of State consulted the bodies required by section 197(4) and (5) of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008.

Citation, application and interpretation

1. (1) These Directions may be cited as the Direction on the Regulatory Standards (Provision of Information) 2023.

(2) This Direction comes into force on the day after the day on which it is given.

(3) This Direction applies to the Regulator of Social Housing.

(4) In this Direction “tenant” means, in relation to a registered provider, a tenant or other occupier of social housing provided by the registered provider.

(5) Where an expression is used but not defined in this Direction, that expression has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008.

Direction relating to the provision of information about tenants’ rights and complaints

2. (1) The Regulator of Social Housing must set a standard that requires registered providers to provide accessible information to their tenants about:

(a) their tenants’ rights in connection with their homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes;

(b) how their tenants can make a complaint about them; and

(c) relevant regulatory requirements in connection with their homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes.

(2) The standard referred to in sub-paragraph (1) must require registered providers to comply with the rules set out in paragraph 3.

3. (1) Registered providers must provide accessible information to their tenants about:

(a) tenants’ rights in respect of registered providers’ legal obligations in connection with tenants’ homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes;

(b) relevant regulatory requirements that registered providers must meet in connection with tenants’ homes and with the facilities and services provided in connection with those homes;

(c) how tenants can make a complaint about their registered provider; and

(d) the registered provider’s complaints policy and complaints handling process.

(2) The information provided in accordance with sub-paragraph (1)(a) and (b) must include information about—

(a) the requirement to provide a home that meets the government’s Decent Homes Standard (as it has effect from time to time);

(b) the registered provider’s obligation to comply with health and safety legislation;

(c) the rights conferred on tenants by their tenancy agreements including rights implied by statute and/or common law, in particular:

(i) the right to a home that is fit for human habitation; and

(ii) the right to receive notice of a proposed visit to carry out repairs or maintenance or to view the condition and state of repair of the premises; and

(d) the rights of disabled tenants to reasonable adjustments.

Need for the regulator to consult

4. The requirement to consult under section 196 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 is disapplied in relation to the matters mentioned by this Direction.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Name:

Date:

---

1. Under section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. ↩