Our Regulator & Standards

A new approach to Social Housing regulation

With effect from 1st April 2012 the regulation of social housing landlords in England has changed. The Tenants Services Authority (TSA) has closed and its regulation function has transferred to the Regulation Committee of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

Social housing landlords now have to meet a new set of regulatory standards. The main changes are as follows:

There are now 7 standards categorised as “economic” or “consumer” :

Economic standards
o Governance and financial viability
o Value for money
o Rent

Consumer standards
o Tenant involvement and empowerment
o Home
o Tenancy
o Neighbourhood and community

The HCA will take a proactive role in the regulation of economic standards however for consumer regulation they will only intervene in matters of catastrophic failure where there is the potential to pose significant harm to tenants or potential tenants. This is known as serious detriment.

The new standards reflect the changes to regulation required by Government and incorporated in the Localism Act 2011.

More information on the HCA and regulation can be found on the HCA website.

The new telephone number for enquiries to the HCA is: 0300 1234500 and the general email enquiries address is: mail@homesandcommunities.co.uk

Service Measures

Whilst the above mentioned changes to the standards are embedded at Mercian we will continue to report on the priorities previously identified by customers. Information about our performance in these areas can be found in Home Matters or by following the link below.

Homes	Having a definite appointment time that suits me and I am confident will be kept Being kept informed about the progress in getting my repair done Having the repair fixed first time
Neighbourhood and Community	Satisfaction that the local area is safe and clean An initial response to Anti Social Behaviour within 24 hours Clear action agreed and taken to resolve Anti Social Behaviour
Tenancy	Having my needs taken into account when moving into a new home Clear information about the standard I can expect when I move into a new home
Tenant involvement and empowerment	My views taken into account by the housing provider in providing services to me Opportunity for involvement in decisions which affect me or service improvements Clear and timely communication in response to service requests Satisfaction that my complaint has been fully responded to Confidence that my housing provider will improve services as a result of my complaint
Value for Money	Information on how my housing provider has improved value for money

View our latest Service Measures performance information (745 KB).

Local offers

We have developed a number of local offers based on what you have told us about the services we provide and what you would like us to do. These local offers were presented to you in our resident review last year.

In forthcoming editions of Home Matters we will tell you how we are progressing with these and how improvements have enhanced the life chances of our customers.

Last modified 24/04/12