Inside Housing – Home – CIH Brighton: uptick in referrals around ‘basic health and safety compliance’, RSH says

“We can deliver more and better homes, and we can come out of what has been quite a difficult period in a much better place […]”
Earlier Mr Perry said when it comes to consumer standards, the RSH was “very consciously” moving away from talking about “compliance” and towards delivering outcomes. 
Panellist Stephen Blundell, director of operations at Leeds Federated Housing Association, said the “biggest single risk with the consumer standards regime is that we look at it as primarily a kind of compliance framework”. 
Leeds Federated took part in one of the regulator’s inspection pilots. 
“We do need to comply with the consumer standards. However, if we are too focused on that, we will without really thinking about it, turn the regulator into our primary customer, and that is absolutely not what’s intended here,” he said.  
On the inspections, Mr Blundell said: “Overall, and overwhelming, it was a process of deep engagement and inquiry. It was a test as to whether we as an organisation truly understood our strengths and weaknesses, our opportunities to improve, whether we have sensible, rational, demonstrable bases for setting the priorities that we had.”
In response, Mr Perry explained that the English regulator is not going to come and check hundreds of homes to see whether they have damp, ill-fitted windows, or holes in the roof. 
“Us pointing that out does not add a great deal to the sum of human knowledge. It certainly doesn’t improve anything for the customers and tenants who call those places home,” he said. 
He added: “You should know that stuff, you should have a grip on your homes. You should have a grip on your performance. You should know where the problem areas are in your organisation. 
“You should know where you’re doing well as well. What we’re looking for is how you can explain that to us. How you assure yourself internally about your performance. How you challenge yourselves, how your internal controls work, how you know that you’re delivering those outcomes.”
The RSH warned last month that there “will be consequences” for social landlords that fail new regulatory standards.



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