The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (the Act) received royal assent on 20 July. Five days later the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) began consulting on its draft consumer standards and draft code of practice. Consultation responses are required by 17 October. Online responses are possible. The questions on the website focus on the merits (or otherwise) of each of the four standards and the ‘specific expectations’ linked to them.

After assessing the responses to the consultation exercise, the RSH will publish its final set of standards and the associated code of practice early next year before the new regime for consumer regulation kicks off in April 2024.

In this briefing we summarise the key measures in both the consumer standards and the code of practice. Then we set out high-level observations about the consultation papers. Members might find the commentary useful when composing their own responses to the draft documents issued by the Regulator. Finally, we describe the remaining pieces in the jigsaw that need to be completed before the new regulatory framework can be fully put in place.