Consultation on changes to the Regulator of Social Housing’s fees regime – our response

The Regulator of Social Housing has been consulting on changes to their fees regime, as part of a wider series of legislative changes ushered in by the Social Housing Regulation Act.

The Social Housing Regulation Act received royal assent in July 2023. The Act ushers in a new proactive regulatory era for social housing, aiming to make sure all residents have access to safe, secure and quality homes.

As part of this new legislation, the Regulator of Social Housing will have a new consumer role in regulating the social housing sector. To do this, the Regulator is consulting on proposed changes to their fee regime. These changes aim to make sure the Regulator has the resources, skills and capacity to meet the aims of the new legislation.

The Regulator has been asking the social housing sector for its views on proposed changes to fee principles and levels. At the NHF, we welcome the Regulator’s expanded role, and the aim to enhance the transparency and accountability of the sector. We believe these new measures will help make sure residents of social housing have homes which are both safe and high quality.

However, we want to make sure that the new fee regime works for all housing associations. We are concerned that the changes may impact smaller and supported housing providers disproportionately and we would welcome further consideration by the Regulator on the challenges faced by housing associations.

Our views on the consultation’s proposals are:

• We welcome the consultation and agree that the Regulator needs adequate resources to fulfil its revised functions.
• We welcome the proposed principles on measures to enhance transparency and accountability.
• We have concerns about the potential impact of the proposed fee levels, particularly for small private registered providers.
• We would welcome further consideration by the Regulator of the challenges faced by registered providers and consider the factors we have presented in this response. 

Please get in touch with us using the contact details below if you have any questions or would like further clarification on our response to the consultation.

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