Social housing not tenant focused, says new regulator

Social landlords do not pay enough attention to their customers, the head of the new housing watchdog has said.

Anthony Mayer, chief executive designate of the Tenant Services Authority, said the social housing sector is less focused on its consumers than private businesses.

Speaking at the National Housing Federation conference in Birmingham, he said: “There is far too big a gap between the best and worst performing housing associations in terms of the deal they give to their tenants and their engagement with their tenants. And compared with private sector service providers the sector as a whole has fallen off the pace in terms of consumer focus.”

He told the conference that the new regulator would not be “a reincarnation of the Housing Corporation”. It would focus on what tenants wanted from their individual landlord and home in problem areas within housing associations, he said.

The relationship would not be the “parent-child” one that exists between the corporation and the sector but one where associations would get “more devolved responsibility to them but less sentimentality”, he said. Association boards would face a “profound challenge” under the new regime and would need skilled members.

The sector cannot not get away with putting the brakes on production of new homes. “If the housing association sector does not deliver its share of the required and funded outputs of new homes, then the government will look elsewhere,” he warned.

However he said short-term tightness in lending to housing associations would give way to “benign” medium term financial prospects for the sector.