Regulator for social housing - FAQs
Frequently asked questions about the regulator for social housing's judgement.
Who is the Regulator for Social Housing?
The Regulator of Social Housing is responsible for ensuring local authorities and housing associations provide good quality, safe and well managed homes to their residents. They assess local authorities across a set of standards known as ‘consumer standards’. These standards are called:
- Neighbourhood and Community
- Safety and Quality
- Tenancy
- Transparency, Influence and Accountability
In Wandsworth, our housing service standards and annual report to residents are set out by these standards to help explain how we believe we meet them.
You can read more information about:
Who is the Regulator inspecting?
The Regulator will inspect every housing provider who manages over 1,000 properties every 4 years. This new inspection regime started in April 2024. Wandsworth was inspected in November 2024.
You can read more information on regulatory judgements issued so far.
What happened as part of the inspection?
The inspection focused on the 4 main consumer standards as set out above. The process involved the Regulator assessing the information we provide to tenants, senior officers and Councillors. It looked at how this information is used and how tenants are involved in decision making, this was across all 4 standards. The Regulator then spoke to officers about the policies and processes that we have in place.
What was the outcome of the inspection?
Although we were found to be compliant in the majority of the standards, we were found to have serious failings in relation to the Safety and Quality Standard.
These were:
- Electrical safety - at the time of inspection, the Regulator found more than 40% of homes did not have an up-to-date electrical inspection. When all new properties are let they will have a valid electrical certificate but these should be renewed every 5 years
- Stock quality – at the time of the inspection, the most recent stock condition survey carried out in 2023-23 was to a sample of 6% of homes.
Another area highlighted by the Regulator was in relation to fire risk assessments. At the time of inspection, we had 1,800 overdue actions. We have so far completed 38,000 actions, with a further 500 in progress and want to reassure residents that no outstanding actions were rated as serious by the fire risk assessor.
We are pleased to report that in relation to the Neighbourhood and Community and Tenancy Standard the Regulator was assured that we met these standards. This means we provided assurance that we work co-operatively with tenants and other landlords to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of shared spaces and increase wellbeing in communities. We also provided assurance that we offer tenancies and terms of occupation that mean we make efficient use of the housing stock we manage.
In the area of Transparency, influence and Accountability the inspection found evidence that we provide relevant and accessible information to tenants on landlord services and what to expect from us. However, there was limited performance information in relation to health and safety requirements. This is an area we are committed to improving through our Annual Report to residents.
The Regulator saw we have a well-established formal framework of engagement opportunities but there was limited evidence of tenant-led engagement. We have recognised the need to improve our informal engagement and for the first time last year we opened our resident conference to all those who were interested.
We look forward to working closely with the Regulator to evidence the improvements we are making.
What does this mean for us?
Wandsworth Council has been given a C3 grade, which means the inspector found some serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. You can read the full judgment.
What are we doing to put things highlighted in the inspection right?
Since being inspected we have made immediate changes to our stock condition surveys and have taken swift action to improve our electrical safety inspections. We can confirm we have:
- Completed electrical safety certificates in 75% of communal areas and 70% of tenanted properties. Whilst we have had a contract in place since 2021, we were not where we hoped to be and have worked swiftly to improve performance. We are due to finish all communal electrical checks by spring 2025
- A new programme of stock condition surveys will be starting this year. We have now confirmed we will undertake 100% inspections in tenanted homes over a 5 year period. This will mean we inspect 20% a year starting this year
Is my home safe?
We want to assure you that your safety is extremely important to us. We know this report may cause some concern but the findings do not mean that your home is unsafe. We carry out a range of inspections to our properties, including when they become vacant, when inspecting for routine repairs, occupancy checks and new tenancy visits. All of these provide opportunities to pick up and deal with any health and safety issues. If you have not yet had a visit so an Official electrical safety certificate can be undertaken, you will be contacted in the next few months. If you do have any concerns, please contact your area team on:
- Central: 020 8871 5333
- Southern: 020 8871 7288
- Eastern: 020 8871 7439
- Western: 020 8871 5530
If you don’t know which area team manages your home please call 020 8871 6000.
Will you be providing more information on the judgement?
Our June edition of Homelife will provide more information on the Regulatory judgement and any measures we have put in place to make improvements. The annual report to residents published in the autumn edition of Homelife will also provide more detail about how we are meeting our obligations as set out in the consumer standards.