The Social Housing White Paper – November 2020

A statement from Alan Townshend, Chief Executive on behalf of Southern Housing Group

Last week’s publication of the Social Housing White Paper is a welcome step forward in our sector’s collective response to the serious and important issues raised by the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in 2017; to ensure residents are safe, are heard and listened to, and can hold their landlord to account right across the social housing sector.

I’m proud of the steps that we have already taken at Southern Housing Group to build trust and engagement with our residents and invest in building safety. We have:

• Created a clear and strong voice for residents within our governance framework, working with TPAS and delivered through a range of resident engagement routes, putting the voice of residents at the heart of our organisation
• Established a new building safety team dedicated to ensuring buildings meet safety requirements – investing in a building safety programme to systematically check all our buildings and make sure that any remedial work found to be needed gets done

There is more that needs to be done. We are committed to working with our peers, the Regulator of Social Housing and the government to develop the next steps on consumer regulation, as we continue to ensure that our residents shape and influence the decisions that impact their lives.

Enhancing transparency, ensuring people are and feel safe in their homes, and addressing the causes of stigma and discrimination is more important than ever as we start to rebuild communities and local economies in the wake of Covid-19.  Along with our peers, we urge the government to work with the sector to develop a full understanding of building safety requirements, progress the building safety bill through parliament and recognise the resources needed to deliver it.