Social housing white paper published by ministers

The government has published a new charter for social housing residents, which it claims will give tenants a greater voice.

The charter is part of a new social housing white paper, which aims to improve the regulation and access to housing social.

According to the government, it will speed up the complaints procedure for residents by improving access to the Housing Ombudsman and reducing decision times.

But town hall leaders have warned it will not help to tackle the ‘severe shortage’ of social housing around the country.

The charter will also make landlords more accountable for the services they deliver, including access to a new information scheme for tenants of housing associations and introducing a set of tenant satisfaction measures that landlords will have to report against.

The white paper also reaffirms the government’s ambition to provide social housing residents with more opportunities to own their home via Right to Buy and a new Right to Shared Ownership for housing association tenants in new grant funded homes.

Alongside publishing the white paper, housing secretary Robert Jenrick has also announced a consultation on mandating smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in all rental homes.

‘This white paper will bring transformational change for social housing residents, giving them a much stronger voice and, in doing so, re-focusing the sector on its social mission,’ said Mr Jenrick.

‘I want to see social housing tenants empowered by a regulatory regime and a culture of transparency, accountability, decency and service befitting of the best intentions and deep roots of social housing in this country.’

Responding to the announcement, the Local Government Association’s (LGA) housing spokesman, Cllr Darren Rodwell said it is ‘paramount that the voice of all social housing residents is heard’.

‘Now is the time to reverse the decline in council housing over the past few decades,’ said Cllr Rodwell.

‘As important as these reforms are for tenants, they will not help to tackle the severe shortage of social housing the country faces.

‘Every penny spent on building new social housing is an investment that has the potential to bring significant economic and social returns. We have set out how handing councils the powers and resources to build 100,000 social homes for rent each year would help to reduce spiralling council housing waiting lists and deliver a £14.5bn boost to the economy.’

Photo Credit – Free-Photos (Pixabay)