When it receives Royal Assent in the coming weeks, the Social Housing (Regulation) Act will represent a major change to the way the social housing sector is regulated and will apply equally to both housing associations and local authorities.

Born out of the Social Housing White Paper published in 2020 as part of the government’s pledge to reform social housing in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the Act’s primary objectives are to protect residents, raise standards in the sector and drive accountability and transparency.

The new legislation will see:

• The return of housing inspection
• The launch of the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures
• The introduction of Awaab’s Law
• The implementation of mandatory qualifications for social housing managers
• The launch of revamped and extended consumer standards.

What will be covered?

At this virtual event, we will break down the different elements of the new legislation and explain the practical steps organisations should be taking now.

You will hear direct from the Regulator of Social Housing on the latest implementation timeline, its own preparatory work and what it expects landlords to be doing now – including how the changes are being communicated to residents.

You will also hear from housing associations and local authorities involved in the regulator’s consumer regulation and inspection pilots on what they have learned from the experience.

Who should attend?

• Chief Executives
• Board members/councillors with a housing responsibility
• Senior executives
• Managers and staff responsible for:
• Strategy and policy
• Asset management
• Health and safety
• Complaints
• Compliance
• Communications
• Customer experience
• Data management
• Tenant involvement.

10.30 Welcome and introduction

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

10.40 The Social Housing (Regulation) Act – implementation timeline and how RPs should be preparing

• • Will Perry, Director of Strategy, Regulator of Social Housing

11.15 Regulator Q&A

11.30 Break

11.45 Learning from the RSH pilots – Bernicia Homes

• • Andrea Malcolm, Executive Director, People, Homes & Communities, Bernicia

12.15 Learning from the RSH pilots – Eastbourne Borough Council

• • Richard Tomkinson, Customer Experience & Performance Improvement Lead, Eastbourne Borough Council

    • The session will look at Eastbourne Borough Council’s experience of engaging in the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Regulation Testing Pilot, including how they prepared, what was involved and how it will inform their onward approach.

12.45 Break

13.00 Preparing for the Social Housing (Regulation) Act – the HQN view

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

  • Roger Jarman, lead regulation associate, HQN

13.45 Closing remarks

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

Will Perry, Director of Strategy, Regulator of Social Housing

Will heads the regulator’s strategy function, including private finance, policy, registrations, new entrants, business intelligence and stakeholder relations. Recently he has been leading the development of the Regulator’s response to the Social Housing White Paper.

A qualified chartered accountant, he has previously worked in corporate finance lead advisory, government audit and housing consultancy and is a non-executive director of The Housing Finance Corporation.

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

Alistair McIntosh is one of the social housing sector’s most respected and best known personalities. As founder and Chief Executive of HQN, he is regarded as one of the foremost advisers on governance and regulation, specialising in VfM and stress testing. His hands-on approach sees Alistair leading on all HQN’s in-depth assessment mock exercises and support work, designing and running the popular Iron Grip sessions and chairing/speaking at conferences and events.

Career highlights include setting up and running the National Federation of ALMOs, leading the popular consultation on the regulatory standards for housing, and developing an approach to VfM that won praise from the housing minister. A regular contributor to the housing press, Alistair’s columns are known for their humorous, pointed and painfully accurate assessment of the state of social housing.

Roger Jarman, Associate, HQN

Roger Jarman is a long standing HQN associate. He provides consultancy services; leads training programmes; and writes on housing regulation and other matters. He is the author of HQN’s Social Housing White Paper toolkit and delivers a range of training sessions on the White Paper proposals. He is also a Non Executive Director of two housing organisations. From 1991 until 1999 he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation and then from 1999 until 2011 he was Head of Housing at the Audit Commission overseeing the 1400 housing inspections undertaken by the Commission during that period. He was a member of the team that produced the Cave Review of social housing regulation in 2007.

Richard Tomkinson, Customer Experience & Performance

Improvement Lead, Eastbourne Borough Council 

Richard’s experience comes from 27 years working with housing associations and local authorities specialising in service design and management, performance improvement, regeneration engagement, resident involvement and community Investment.

In 2018 following a number of years as an independent consultant, Richard joined his home local authority as a Project Implementation Lead (picking up all the stuff that others didn’t have the time to do!)

Following the publication of The Charter for Social Housing Residents, Richard undertook service realignment and established the Customer Experience Team to address existing service challenges and to future-proof the organisation for what was to come. The Team now delivers a range of core services (Complaint Handling, Resident Involvement, Systems Administration and User-Training, Performance Management) as well as providing a wider business support role for service improvement.

Andrea Malcolm, Executive Director, People, Homes & Communities. Bernicia

With a 30-year career in social housing, Andrea has held senior positions in Housing Management, Human Resources and Organisational Development, during which time she has contributed significantly to substantial business growth, organisational transition, and corporate transformation.

With overall responsibility for the delivery of housing services, Andrea is resolute in seeking out and listening to the tenant’s voice, ensuring insight and intelligence is central to decision making and, in the design, and delivery of services that meet the diverse needs of households and communities.

As Executive Director for People, Homes and Communities, Andrea is also responsible for Bernicia’s people strategy, aligning colleagues’ skills and experience, attitudes, and behaviours to the delivery of corporate objectives.  Underpinning this she drives a strong values-based culture, focussed on customer service excellence, that values and respects tenants, customers, and their homes.

Andrea is Bernicia’s lead officer for compliance with Consumer Standards regulation.

If you are unable to attend an event or public training course, please let us know in writing (email is fine) at least 48 hours before. Please email [email protected]

Otherwise, a cancellation fee of £60 plus VAT will be chargeable.

If you are using a package place to attend and do not inform us within the agreed time frame, then a place will be taken to cover your non-attendance.

Cancellations must be made in writing.