Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (Consequential and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2024

Baroness Scott of Bybrook Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2024 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook]

That the Grand Committee do consider the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (Consequential and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2024.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (Baroness Scott of Bybrook) (Con)]

My Lords, this draft instrument makes technical, consequential and miscellaneous amendments to primary and secondary legislation following the passage of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023.

For far too long, too many tenants have not received the quality homes and services they need and deserve. Social housing tenants deserve decent homes and to be treated with fairness and respect by their landlords. Where they experience problems, these should be resolved quickly. Where they have complaints, these must be listened to. On too many occasions, this has not happened, and we know that getting this wrong can, sadly, lead to tragic consequences. We cannot forget the Grenfell Tower tragedy, nor the tragic death of two year-old Awaab Ishak from prolonged exposure to damp and mould that was left untreated. These events were the catalyst for change.

The passage of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act was a landmark moment for the social housing sector. The Act facilitates the biggest change to the regulation of social housing in a decade, paving the way for the introduction of a new proactive consumer regulation regime. The proactive regime will drive up standards in social housing, with regular inspections of large landlords, new tenant satisfaction measures and stronger enforcement powers for the regulator to take action when things go wrong.

During the passage of the now Act, we made a number of major amendments, and I am thankful for the constructive input from noble Lords and the other place. A key addition was the introduction of Awaab’s law. This will help to ensure that hazards in social housing are assessed and then repaired within set timescales. The Act facilitates the introduction of new competence and conduct standards that will professionalise the sector to improve the quality of service that tenants receive. The 2023 Act also made a number of changes to strengthen the existing economic regulation regime.

To ensure that existing legislation remains accurate following the passage of the 2023 Act, the regulations contained in this instrument make several consequential amendments to relevant primary and secondary legislation. Part 1 of Schedule 1 makes consequential amendments to the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, which are necessary in response to the provisions set out in the 2023 Act. Such changes include amendments that reflect the change to when a housing moratorium starts and the addition of new entries in the index of defined terms in the 2008 Act which signpost definitions added or amended by the recent Act.

Part 2 of Schedule 1 makes consequential amendments to other relevant legislation, including the Housing and Planning Act 2016. These changes are a consequence of provisions in the 2023 Act which make changes relating to moratoriums in the event of an insolvency, the definition of whether a registered provider is “non-profit” and what constitutes an “English body” for the purposes of who can be registered.

Part 3 of Schedule 1 makes consequential amendments to the Social Housing Rents (Exceptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2016 in consequence of a change made by the 2023 Act. This change relates to the definition of “community land trust”, which has been inserted into the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 by the 2023 Act.

Lastly, the regulations make two miscellaneous adjustments which correct minor errors in statute. The first removes a redundant reference to a section in the 2008 Act which was later repealed by the Housing and Planning Act 2016. The second amends a provision inserted by an SI; this change is intended to ensure consistency across the two pieces of legislation.

Although the changes I have outlined are of minor significance in themselves, they are required to ensure accuracy and consistency across the statute book following the changes made by the 2023 Act. I commend these draft regulations to the Committee.

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[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, as the Minister knows, this Act has been well received by all sectors concerned with social housing, and it is supported on our Benches. As she said, this is due largely to the Grenfell tragedy, but also to subsequent high-profile failures of social housing, including the tragic death of young Awaab Ishak. Let us not forget the recent deaths in temporary accommodation, which are truly shocking.

We know that the devil will always be in the detail, and we all hope that the rhetoric accompanying the Act will live up to the reality. The Minister is clearly aware that there have been several consultations since last July, when the Bill was passed, and issues have emerged, which the sector is rightly bringing to the Government’s attention in this process. It appears that the full and cumulative impact of the new changes thus far has been evidentially to expose the wide variation in the quality of provision of social housing by registered providers and councils. This was recently outlined very robustly by the deputy social housing regulator. Is the Minister confident that the new approach to inspections and the C categorisation will allow for a nuanced approach to allow those lagging behind to learn from the best and hopefully catch up, or will it be an adversarial system—a weeding out of the worst? In short, what will the approach to inspections be? I know from experience of Ofsted in schools and the CPA in local government that they can vary.

It is no surprise that there are concerns about the additional costs associated with all the changes, which I am sure the Minister will be aware of. What is in place to ensure that landlords can make progress without financially falling over, as we are seeing with some local authorities? Regrettably, we are already hearing that they are cutting back on development plans to focus on the detail of the new regime, which itself is a separate concern due to the considerable shortage of social housing. I echo the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, with which I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, I add that I found that announcement bitterly disappointing because I believed that this Government had genuinely shaped the agenda towards a real understanding that social housing was one of the first bricks we needed to get in place to unblock the logjam and the housing crisis.

Does the Minister accept that there is also a recruitment and retention problem, highlighted and exacerbated by the professionalisation of housing management and maintenance? That is a good aspect of the Act and had cross-party support, but not surprisingly it is having an impact, as some people are jumping before being pushed—probably a good thing in some cases, I am not afraid to say, having had to do the pushing sometimes—or feel that perhaps now is the time to retire rather than go back to the classroom, but it is a very real and relevant issue.

The speed and breadth of the changes cause me to ask how confident the Government are that the sector can and will have the capacity to cope with these genuine changes.

Briefly, on the Awaab’s law changes, I thank the Minister for her detailed letter in response to my question in the Chamber and her generous offer of her time. On a tangential issue, the consultation that has just closed proposed an extension to hazards beyond mould, damp and condensation to include the 29 hazards in the—this is a bit of a mouthful—housing health and safety rating system. This has caused considerable disquiet for the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing, to name but two. They have given convincing reasons why this extension should be reconsidered. Does the Minister agree that it is probably best to see how the sector copes with mould and damp before extending the hazards further?

It seems that there is still much to do to clarify these changes, particularly around the regulator’s use of powers and the approach to inspections. Further clarity is needed on how the regulator will interact with other sector regulators, such as the building safety regulator and the Housing Ombudsman. This will take some getting used to. Such clarification is particularly important for tenants, who will also have an important role to play. In fact, the Act enshrines in law their rights to have a safe and decent home, to make their voices heard and to influence policy so that tenants can shape the homes they live in and the services they receive. I have a pertinent, but perhaps tricky, question. Does the Minister feel that the residents panel—I notice that it is currently recruiting new members, so the current one has not been in action for very long—is a strong, independent and influential voice for tenants or just a sounding board?

Lastly, I look forward to the day when private sector landlords are also subject to the same regime because it is long overdue and much needed.

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

I thank the noble Baronesses opposite for their support, not only today but when we were taking the Bill through, and their challenge on what could be made better. We took some of those things on board.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Thornhill and Lady Taylor of Stevenage, brought up the pressures on the sector. We totally understand them, which is why we work closely with the sector, but my view is that it is the sector’s responsibility. It is the sector’s stock. It needs to keep that stock up and its tenants deserve the very best. So, we will support the sector, but we will not stop challenging it to ensure that social housing tenants live in safe, good accommodation. That is what has come from the Secretary of State right the way through this process.

On right to buy, all I can say is that there were many pressures on the Budget this year. The percentage did not get extended but, again, we are working with the sector to see how we can make the building of more social houses, particularly by local authorities, affordable into the future. I think that noble Lords will hear more on that.

Moving on to the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, am I confident in the approach to inspections and learning from the best? I think learning from the best is the important thing and, yes, I am confident. I talk regularly to the social housing regulator, and it gets it and understands its role. I do not think it will go in heavy to begin with; it will allow the sector to begin to understand this important new regime. However, I think it is important that it can go in quickly if it thinks there is a particular issue to deal with and that it will do regular inspections throughout the sector in future. We will weed out the worst providers, but it is also a matter of helping them to improve and learn from the rest of the sector.

I understand the pressures on the sector, particularly for building new houses, as it has quite rightly had to put more money into making sure that the stock it has is of good quality, so there is possibly less money left for building more houses, but we have a fund of more than £11 million to do that. Housing providers are looking to use that fund continually, and we are supporting them to do that.

Recruitment and retention is out for consultation. We will listen to the sector. This was extremely important to members of the Grenfell community, in particular. They felt that their housing officers were sometimes as important as people working in social care in the council. We listened, and we found a way through that one. We also need to listen to the sector and the regulator as we move forward about the timeliness of implementing this. It is not going to be done overnight, so we will work with the sector after the consultation and listen to what it is saying on that one.

It is the same with Awaab’s law, although I am very passionate about getting Awaab’s law in place as soon as possible. I probably agree with the noble Baroness that perhaps we should start with the timings on damp and mould; that may be something we can look into further. We have only just finished that consultation. I have not seen the responses yet, so I do not want to pre-empt what will come out of that, but we will look, listen and do what we can to get that important part of the Act in place as soon as possible.

The noble Baroness also brought up the interaction between the Housing Ombudsman, the building safety regulator and the social housing regulator. In the department, I have talked many times with officials about the communication on this because it is a new regime; we want it to work and to work well for the tenants concerned. I think noble Lords will see a lot more communications with tenants about who to go to. Of course, if they have a problem, they should first go to their housing provider. We want to make sure that they do that and, if it is an individual case, go to the ombudsman, and then to the building safety regulator which will be working very closely with the ombudsman to make sure that it is picking up any themes coming out from a particular provider or group of providers. That is the way it will work, but communication to the tenants about this regime is important.

Finally, I turn to the residents’ panel. I have been to the residents’ panel, and I do not think that it is a talking shop at all. It is quite challenging. That is why we are extending them for a further year beyond just one year. What the panel says is very important not just for us as a department but for our partners, including the social housing regulator, the ombudsman and the building safety regulator. It is important to listen to the panel; it certainly tells us what it thinks.

I think that I have covered everything; I will check and, if I have not, I will write as usual. To conclude, these changes will ensure that the statute book remains accurate following the passage of the 2023 Act. This is just a small part of our wider mission to drive up the quality of social housing and ensure that all tenants are treated with fairness and respect.

Motion agreed.