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Call for Evidence

Terms of Reference

The inquiry seeks evidence on the quality of social housing, the effectiveness of the regulatory regime and the proposals in the social housing White Paper. The deadline for submissions is 21 December 2021.

In particular, the inquiry seeks answers to the following questions:

  • How widespread and serious are the concerns about the quality of social housing?
  • What is the impact on social housing providers’ resources, and therefore their ability to maintain and improve their housing stock, of the need to remediate building safety risks and retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient?
  • Is the current regime for regulating social housing fit for purpose?
  • How clearly defined are the roles of the Regulator of Social Housing and the Housing Ombudsman?
  • Does the current regime allow tenants to effectively resolve issues?
  • Do the regulator and ombudsman have sufficient powers to take action against providers?
  • Will the reforms proposed in the social housing White Paper improve the regime and what progress has been made on implementing those reforms?
  • What changes, if any, should the Government make to the Decent Homes Standard?
  • Should the Decent Homes Standard be amended to include energy efficiency and other means of mitigating climate change, and if so how?
  • Should all providers of social housing, not just councils, be required to register with the regulator?
  • What challenges does the diversification of social housing providers pose for the regulatory system?

 

We want our inquiries to be informed by a diverse range of voices. Our committee team are happy to help if you require a reasonable adjustment, such as an extension to the deadline, or submitting evidence in an alternative format: please get in touch at luhccom@parliament.uk or 020 7219 5364.

Please note: The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee examines policy issues relating to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and its associated bodiesIn line with the general practice of select committees the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee is not able to take up individual cases. If you would like political support or advice you may wish to contact your local Member of Parliament.

Written evidence must address the terms of reference as set out above, but please note that submissions do not have to address every point. Guidance on giving evidence to a select committee of the House of Commons is available here.

The Committee will decide whether to accept each submission. If your submission is accepted by the Committee, it will usually be published online. It will then be available permanently for anyone to view. It can’t be changed or removed. If you have included your name or any personal information in your submission, that will normally be published too. Please consider how much personal information you want or need to share. If you include personal information about other people in your submission, the Committee may decide not to publish it. Your contact details will never be published.

Decisions about publishing evidence anonymously, or about accepting but not publishing evidence, are made by the Committee. If you would like to ask the Committee to accept your submission anonymously (meaning it will be published but without your name), or confidentially (meaning it won't be published at all), please indicate this when submitting evidence, and tell us why. This lets the Committee know what you would like but the final decision will be taken by the Committee.

The Committee has discretion over which submissions it accepts as evidence, and which of those it then publishes on its website. We may anonymise or redact some of your submission if it is published. The Committee may decide to accept evidence on a confidential basis. Confidential submissions remain available to the Committee but are not published or referred to in public. All written evidence will be considered by the Committee, whether or not it is published

This call for written evidence has now closed.

Go back to The Regulation of Social Housing Inquiry