Contractors – you’re the backbone of the social housing sector.
You’re entrusted with the critical task of maintaining properties and ensuring tenants receive essential services. However, with the introduction of the new Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards, the landscape is evolving, demanding greater accountability and compliance. This in turn means that your social housing clients now have higher expectations as they strive to maintain compliance.
Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know:
1. Understanding the changes: The new Consumers Standards prioritise safety and quality in housing. Landlords are now required to have a comprehensive understanding of their properties to ensure they provide good quality, safe homes for their tenants. As contractors, this means your focus should always be on delivering work that prioritises and evidences safety and quality through relevant data capture.
2. Interacting with tenants: Transparency and fairness have become paramount when it comes to communicating with tenants. Your clients are now expected to engage with tenants openly, treating them with respect and fairness, and ensuring they can always access services. Tenants must be able to voice their concerns and can hold their landlords accountable. This focus on how social housing providers interact with their tenants will undoubtedly affect the service you provide. You are representing your clients on a daily basis so you must also interact with tenants in the way that the Regulator now stipulates.
3. Adapting working practices: Flexibility is key to meeting the new standards. You may need to reassess your working practices, including how you collect data, communicate with stakeholders and ensure compliance with health and safety regulations. Embracing these changes will be essential to maintaining your reputation as a reliable contractor in the sector.
4. Working as one team: Collaboration is fundamental to success. You must work hand in hand with social housing providers, aligning your efforts to meet regulatory requirements effectively. You therefore need to ensure that your own team are up to speed with the regulations and understand the importance of compliance. Your clients will now expect to see you have implemented processes to make this happen.
5. Preparing for future changes: Regulation is constantly evolving and there will be further changes within social housing. Staying informed and adaptable will be crucial as the landscape continues to evolve. By remaining proactive, you can ensure continued compliance and uphold the delivery of the high standards of service needed to meet the evolving needs of social housing tenants.
The five points above show why it’s important to be prepared for the new Consumer Standards. By understanding your role and collaborating closely with your clients, you can continue to contribute to delivering safe, quality housing for tenants.
Oneserve’s job management software serves both contractors and social housing providers. Our system manages and schedules repairs, maintenance and compliance appointments while documenting the data you need as evidence of the work that has been carried out.
To find out how Oneserve can help you better meet your client’s regulatory expectations, please contact our team today.