The Regulator of Social Housing has introduced a new set of consumer standards that aims to help improve the quality of social housing and services. These standards are designed to make sure that homes are safe, well-maintained, and that tenants, like you, receive fair and respectful treatment from their landlord.
Here’s what these new standards mean for you:
- Safety and Quality Standard: Your home should be a safe place. This standard ensures that your housing is up to par with safety and quality requirements.
- Transparency, Influence, and Accountability Standard: You have the right to know how your landlord, Orwell, is performing. This standard makes sure that we are clear about our actions and decisions.
- Neighbourhood and Community Standard: A pleasant community is the key to a happy life. This standard focuses on maintaining a good quality neighbourhood for you to live in.
- Tenancy Standard: Fair treatment is a must. This standard guarantees that you are treated with respect and that your voice is heard in matters related to your tenancy.
Alongside these standards, there’s also a Code of Practice. This is a guidebook that helps landlords like us to understand what we need to do to meet these standards and ensures that you receive the best service possible from us.
As one of our customers you have the right to receive:
a) the requirement to provide a home that meets the government’s Decent Homes Standard;
b) the registered provider’s obligation to comply with health and safety legislation;
c) the rights conferred on tenants by their tenancy agreements including rights implied by statute and/or common law, in particular—
(i) the right to a home that is fit for human habitation; and
(ii) the right to receive notice of a proposed visit to carry out repairs or maintenance or to view the condition and state of repair of the premises; and
d) the rights of disabled tenants to reasonable adjustments
These changes took effect from April 2024, and we at Orwell Housing Association are fully committed to meeting these new expectations. We will review our compliance with these standards every year alongside our customers. At the moment, we are happy we comply with all areas however we have identified some areas we could improve on; we have an action plan which we review at least once a year. To hold us accountable we also present our compliance to the standards and action plan to our Customer Insight Committee who are members of our Board. (Find out more about our board here) If you would like to get involved with reviewing our standards with us, please contact us (Visit the customer involvement webpage here)
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
