But Jonathan Walters stresses RSH is ‘not interested in entering the boardroom’ as it floats plans to make providers more accountable for delivery

The chief executive of the Regulator of Social Housing has defended proposals aimed at making registered providers more accountable for housing delivery.

jonathan walters HCS

Jonathan Walters, chief executive of the Regulator of Social Housing, speaking on the main stage of the Housing Community Summit this morning

Jonathan Walters, speaking at the Housing Community Summit in Liverpool this morning, said: “Not building new homes is not an option.

“People need those homes. The number of people who would love to have a safe, secure, well-maintained social home far exceeds the demand that’s available.

”I think we all do have a responsibility to try to deliver homes, whether that’s through section 106, through your own delivery programme, whatever it might be”.

The RSH in June published a wide-ranging discussion paper which proposed asking RPs to publish an appraisal of their development capacity and, where they can develop, to set themselves a target for new homes built.

Walters stressed however the proposal, which has yet to be developed in detail and formally consulted on, is “about accountability, not control”.

He said “We’re not interested in entering the boardroom and controlling what you do. That is your job.”

“As a regulator, [we] cannot prejudge what the right answers are for you, for your communities, and for your organisation.

“But what we can, I think, reasonably expect is that you are accountable for how you make those decisions. That you make those decisions in a really considered and robust way. That you think about the trade-offs.”

Asked about Andy Burnham’s plan to increase delivery by councils when local authorities disproportionately have lower consumer regulation grades, Walters said “There are councils at C1 that are delivering great services to their customers up and down the country.

“There are also councils who are clearly struggling with delivering the services, and I think often the thing that we see that is driving some of those C3 and C4 judgments with councils is the question of focus - a council has got so many different things it’s trying to do”.

He added: “Running a housing association is easier than running a council…running a council with all the things the council is doing is incredibly difficult.”

More from the Housing Community Summit below:

 

Topics