Proactive Consumer Regulation (Inspection)

April 2024 marks a significant change for the housing sector with the introduction of a proactive regulatory regime, including an inspection programme for all landlords with over 1,000 properties. Over the next four years, all local authority landlords will be inspected by the Regulator for Social Housing, who will be seeking assurance that Local Authorities are compliant with a set of Consumer Standards. This is in line with commitments made through the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023.

You can find more information about the new regulatory regime on the government website.

As is the case with the introduction of any new regime, someone has to be first and at the end of last week, we were notified that Melton Borough Council has been selected for inspection in the first round of regulatory inspections from April 2024. We are one of six local authority landlords to be subject to the first inspections. It has been confirmed that our selection has not been driven by any particular regulatory concern, but rather to enable a sufficient geographic spread, and mix in terms of stock size and profile.

We are now in active dialogue with the Regulator about the upcoming inspection. Once some initial contextual information has been provided by the council, the following things will happen:

• An inspection scope will be created by the Regulator which will likely identify a number of key areas of focus.
• We will provide a range of documents and information
• We will have the opportunity to provide detailed information on the Council’s housing journey, progress and context and there will be ongoing dialogue between the council and the Regulatory Team
• The Regulatory team will have the opportunity to observe some key meetings (for example, Scrutiny Committee, Landlord Assurance Board, Your Choice Tenant Group) and to engage directly with tenants
• The Regulatory team will spend approx. 2 days on site
• The Regulatory team will review the outcome of Tenant Satisfaction Measures and other relevant information
• The Regulator will publish a Regulatory judgement in the summer.
• Following the inspection, there will also be annual engagement meetings with the Regulator and they retain the right to investigate any future concerns in the normal way

The Corporate Lead for the Inspection Process in Michelle Howard, Director for Housing & Communities (Deputy Chief Executive). The Consumer Regulation lead is Alison Bennett, Assistant Director for Housing Management. If you have any questions, please contact Alison in the first instance: abennett@melton.gov.uk 

Being a landlord is both a privilege and a responsibility. We take these responsibilities seriously. We have taken a number of significant steps to review and improve its housing services over recent years and welcome the opportunity to engage with the Regulator for Social Housing as part of its inspection process.  

As our tenants, we want to thank you for your continued interest, engagement and support. We will provide progress updates over the coming months.