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Social housing - Levelling Up Committee hears from local authority & housing organisations

3 March 2022

On Wednesday from 10am, the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee will hold the latest oral evidence session for its inquiry into the regulation of social housing in England. The LUHC Committee will hear from witnesses representing tenants, finance sectors, and housing organisations. Full witness details included below.

Social housing is housing let at below-market rates by housing associations, local authorities and other providers.  

The first panel of the evidence session will focus on tenant engagement and empowerment, the stigmatisation of social housing tenants and accusations of racism within the sector. The second panel will consider the condition and energy efficiency of the social housing stock and the regime for regulating the consumer standards, including the effectiveness of the Decent Homes Standard.

The LUHC’s inquiry is examining concerns about the quality of social housing, with a focus on the ability of the Regulator of Social Housing and the Housing Ombudsman to identify and address problems. The inquiry is also focussing on the proposals in the Government’s social housing White Paper aimed at improving the regulatory regime.  

The inquiry terms of reference are available here. Written evidence submissions have been published for this inquiry and are available here

Witnesses

Wednesday 9 March    

 At  10am  

  • Aman Dalvi, Chair, Newlon Housing Trust and Aspire Housing
  • Jenny Osbourne, Chief Executive, TPAS
  • Dr Amanze Ejiogu, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, Newcastle University Business School

At 10.45pm 

  • James Prestwich, Director of Policy and External Affairs, Chartered Institute of Housing
  • Helen Garrett, National Housing Data and Insights Lead, BRE Group
  • Tarun Bhakta, Policy Officer, Shelter

Evidence sessions so far for this inquiry 

On Monday 7th February, the LUHC Committee held an evidence session with witnesses representing local authority and housing organisations. On Monday 17th January, the LUHC Committee held the first evidence hearing for this inquiry, hearing from witnesses representing tenant groups and private registered providers of social housing.

Further information

Image: PA