We’ve completed our self-assessment against the consumer standards and a summary is below.
The self-assessment confirms areas of strength and highlights where we need to focus to comply with the standards fully. Work is either planned or underway, and we are making good progress against the requirements.
Some areas, like addressing building issues to comply with new regulation, will need a robust, costed plan. We recognise this as a current weakness, but our capital programme reset and refreshed asset management strategy will address long-term maintenance needs. Building services are also conducting stock condition surveys, alongside annual tenancy visits by Housing Officers, to meet the regulator’s expectations for detailed knowledge of buildings and tenancies.
Strengths include our response repairs service, out-of-hours support, and local delivery of housing management services and repairs, reflected in positive tenant satisfaction.
The new regulations require landlords to self-refer gaps in compliance to the regulator. We have already done this and submitted our self-assessment. We’re also monitoring published inspection judgements and housing ombudsman findings to guide our improvement ahead of our own inspection, expected within the next four years (from April 2024).