The Week in Housing: English regulator publishes first-year TSM results, and impact of Storm Bert

Good afternoon.

This week saw the publication of the long-awaited results on the tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) in England.

Inside Housing has already provided a detailed examination of the scores based on our own research.

This week’s publication revealed that more than 70% of low-cost renters are happy with their accommodation, although those proportions dipped for shared owners. The analysis also looked in detail at the impact of collection methods on overall scores, which Inside Housing has been highlighting over the past year.

Writing exclusively for Inside Housing, Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing, set out how landlords should be using their TSM results.

For many landlords and residents, though, the big story of the week was the impact of Storm Bert on their homes and communities. We took a detailed look at the impact and work to support residents by Welsh social landlords.

Elsewhere in Wales, trade body?Community Housing Cymru has a new chair: Gerraint Oakley, director of growth and development at Platform Housing Group.

In London, one major landlord was downgraded to a G3 for governance and handed a C3 rating amid “serious failings” with the regulator’s consumer standards.

There were also further indications of a significant slowdown in delivery of new housing in the capital, with the publication of figures on affordable housing starts.

But the drive for quality in London took further shape this week. L&Q put its private rental business on sale. It stated it would reinvest additional funding from the sale into building and managing social homes.

On the move, group chief executive Fiona Fletcher-Smith said: “In recent years, the social housing sector has faced economic volatility, policy shifts and funding uncertainties. In response, we have a clear strategy which is focused on simplifying our business, prioritising our core purpose as a social housing provider.”?

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