Consumer standards
The Regulator of Social Housing checks and inspects landlords who provide social housing (low cost rental and/or low cost home ownership), to make sure they meet a set of consumer standards.
These standards make sure people living in social housing have safe, good-quality places to live.
The standards
The Safety and Quality Standard
Requires landlords to provide safe and good quality homes and landlord services to tenants.
The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard
Requires landlords to be open with tenants and treat them with fairness and respect so that tenants can access services, raise complaints, when necessary, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account.
The Neighbourhood and Community Standard
Requires landlords to engage with other relevant parties so that tenants can live in safe and well-maintained neighbourhoods and feel safe in their homes.
The Tenancy Standard
Sets requirements for the fair allocation and letting of homes and for how those tenancies are managed and ended by landlords.
Improving our services for our tenants
In 2024 we checked how well we were meeting the standards set by the regulator. We found 8 themes of improvements required as set out in our draft Housing Regulatory Development Plan (PDF).
Housing inspection 2024
In November 2024, the regulator carried out an inspection of our Housing Service.
The inspection was the first since the introduction of the regulator’s new consumer standards in April 2024. As part of this new programme, social landlords are given a grading between C1, the highest achievable, and C4, the lowest. We have been graded C3. This means significant improvement is needed to deliver the outcomes of the consumer standards.
We acknowledge we did not met the required standards that people who live in our homes deserve. We are committed to making significant improvements to ensure housing services meet the highest standards of safety, quality, and tenant engagement.
The regulator’s report acknowledges some of the good practice and positive work we were already doing and many of the recommendations were things we were already aware of and taking steps to address.
The inspection feedback has informed our draft Housing Regulatory Improvement Plan which will be supported by a Housing Regulatory Improvement Strategy.
The plan includes:
- meeting safety compliance – a data validation exercise has already been completed on information held on homes we own, and an external review has already been commissioned to review the accuracy of housing stock data
- improving housing management systems – a new housing management system has been procured to provide better oversight of tenancy and asset information
- tackling repairs backlogs – outstanding repairs are being prioritised, with improved tracking and reporting mechanisms in place to ensure timely completion
- strengthening tenant engagement: a new Tenant Involvement Strategy has been approved, we are introducing a Landlord Assurance Board with tenant representation and improving the way we communicate performance and service improvements
We are committed to being open and transparent with our tenants and residents about how plan to improve our services and the progress we are making. If you want to find out more, email housingregulation@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk. We will also be posting regular updates in our monthly Housing Matters bulletin.