The long awaited social housing white paper—The Charter for Social Housing Residents—(“the Charter”) was published yesterday (17 November 2020). This white paper sets out reforms under seven key chapters which all aim to improve services to tenants and give them a stronger voice. We summarise the seventh chapter, and what this means for landlords below.

Chapter 7: To be supported to take your first step to ownership

The white paper makes it clear that increasing home ownership remains a priority for this government, although it is no longer the primary target that it was under the Cameron administration.  The white paper discusses the number of new homes expected to be delivered and talks about the following initiatives that are already being explored:

• A new and more accessible shared ownership model;
• A right to shared ownership for grant funded schemes; and
• The voluntary right-to-buy pilot.

These proposals will be familiar to registered providers (RPs) and information about them has been available in the sector for some time.  Please do get in touch if you have any questions about how these will operate, and how these changes are being perceived by the funders. 

Other highlights from the white paper

We’ve taken a look at the various proposals under the seven chapters, and have highlighted some particular areas of interest for landlords, which are available below:

• Overview: What this whitepaper means for landlords
• Chapter 1: To be safe in your home
• Chapter 2: To know how your landlord is performing
• Chapter 3: To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly
• Chapter 4: To be treated with respect
• Chapter 5: To have your voice heard by your landlord
• Chapter 6: To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in
• Chapter 7: To be supported to take your first step to ownership

Register for our upcoming webinar

We wait with interest for the new consumer standards, but in the meantime we will be holding a webinar to discuss the white paper and what it means for registered providers on 1 December 2020. Learn more and register here.