A new charter giving social housing tenants in England a greater voice and making landlords more accountable has been announced by the Government.
The reforms, part of a Social Housing White Paper, will see the creation of a Charter for Social Housing Residents, which aims to speed up the complaints procedure for residents by improving access to the Housing Ombudsman, reducing waiting times, and resolving issues effectively.
Landlords will be made more accountable by providing tenants of housing associations with access to a new information scheme, as well as introducing a set of tenant satisfaction measures that landlords will be required to report against.
The LGA said it supported measures to make the existing redress process “clearer, equitable and accessible for all tenants, regardless of tenure”, but warned of the need to address the lack of social homes.
Cllr Darren Rodwell, the LGA’s Housing Spokesperson, said: “Now is the time to reverse the decline in council housing over the past few decades. As important as these reforms are for tenants, they will not help to tackle the severe shortage of social housing the country faces.”
The White Paper followed publication of new research calling for a post-pandemic building boom of 100,000 new social homes for rent each year, which would deliver a £14.5 billion boost to the economy.
‘Building post-pandemic prosperity’, commissioned by the LGA, Association of Retained Council Housing, and National Federation of ALMOs, also estimates that council housing waiting lists could nearly double to two million households next year as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19.
To tackle the shortage of social housing, the LGA is calling on the Government to allow councils to resume their role as a major builder of affordable homes.