The UK social housing sector is on the verge of experiencing significant changes in 2024 with the introduction of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. This legislation grants the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) more authority and responsibilities, enabling stricter provider regulation. Starting this year, the RSH’s regulatory reach will be expanded to cover a broader range of scenarios by having the power to assess landlords who fail to meet standards regularly and proactively.

All social housing landlords are obligated to report on the RSH’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM), which come with updated consumer standards. These reports offer insights into the landlords’ performance in areas such as building safety, property maintenance, and tenant complaints. Providers with more than 1,000 homes must submit their initial TSM data return by June 30, 2024, and the RSH plans to publish the first year of data by the autumn of that same year.

Registered building control approvers must now register with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) by April 6, 2024, as per the Building Safety Act 2022. Developers of high-rise buildings must ensure that work is sufficiently advanced, and inspectors approved by the local authority must register as building control approvers by the same date to avoid a transfer of authority to the BSR.