Will the Minister outline how housing associations are accountable to local people?
Housing associations are independent autonomous organisations with independent boards. They are not, therefore, governed by the Welsh Government. Housing associations are though regulated by the Welsh Ministers through a regulatory framework. Each association is subject to a regulatory judgment on, at least, an annual basis.
Housing associations are also accountable to local people, particularly the people to whom they provide services. Accordingly, we expect decision-making to be transparent and open to scrutiny. Tenant involvement is central to effective services and is reflected in the regulatory framework in a number of ways.
The framework currently includes a performance standard (PS 2) explicitly geared to tenant involvement. To meet this standard housing associations must ensure, “effective and appropriate tenant involvement and high quality and improving services.”
The regulator also considers whether associations can provide evidenced assurance that, “…tenants are effectively involved in strategic decision making and shaping services in ways appropriate for tenants and the organisation,” and that they can demonstrate they meet the relevant health and safety statutory requirements.
As independent bodies, the ways in which housing associations work with tenants to ensure their engagement in decision-making processes are tailored to their local circumstances. These currently range from tenant representation on boards, a community mutual democratic body, representative fora and scrutiny panels across an association’s ‘footprint’ and often linked to boards. Tenants are also heard through representative organisations such as the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) Cymru, for example.
The Regulatory Board for Wales (RBW), established to oversee the performance of the regulator and to advise the Welsh Ministers on social housing trends, takes a particularly keen interest in tenant involvement and local accountability. Against a broad backdrop of different arrangements at local level, last July RBW published The Right Stuff: hearing the tenant’s voice. The result of significant stakeholder engagement, the document establishes fundamental questions and challenges for associations to consider when reviewing tenant engagement. Housing association boards and executives were asked to reflect on how they can incorporate The Right Stuff’s messages and give them practical effect.
The Regulator consistently challenges housing associations to improve and, in the light of “The Right Stuff” report, will work with a range of stakeholders next year as part of an already scheduled review of the performance framework. The review will take a particular interest in the currency and suitability of PS2 and also consider whether a separate judgement dimension for tenant involvement/service quality is appropriate.
Working with partners, including TPAS Cymru, we continue to strengthen the effective informed scrutiny and challenge, particularly by tenants, of housing association policy and decisions. The user interface for a clear and comparable data set was tested, to their satisfaction, by a panel of tenants. Accordingly, the data set was published in October 2018 (see https://gov.wales/compare-your-housing-association). The system enables people to compare data on nine indicators of tenant satisfaction, seven indicators of landlord cost and efficiency, and the number of homes meeting the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. It also provides contextual information such as total number of homes, staffing numbers, turnover and surplus/deficits generated by each housing association. The pages have been viewed over 2,500 times since publication.
Of course, the needs and views of prospective tenants are also important and housing associations are encouraged to understand the needs of prospective tenants and service users in their activities.
Welsh Government is committed to the continuous improvement of housing associations, to ensure that local people can access quality, affordable housing. It is, in that regard, essential that local voices are heard in the development and delivery of local provision.