Awaab’s Law: what does the board need to see to carry out its duties?
In this final article of our Awaab’s Law article series, we focus on what boards should be looking for, to get assurance that their housing association complies with Awaab’s Law.
Understanding the condition of housing stock
A thorough understanding of the association’s housing stock is the essential starting point. The board needs a comprehensive knowledge of the state of the homes it lets to its tenants.
The Regulator of Social Housing expects social landlords to maintain up to date stock condition survey reports on all its properties, identifying potential repair issues.
The board should ensure that stock condition surveys are:
- conducted on a sufficient number of properties to provide reliable evidence;
- up to date with a planned programme of stock surveys to maintain data accuracy; and
- undertaken by reputable surveyors whose reports are dependable.
Combining data sources
Stock condition surveys should be combined with other property data to provide a comprehensive picture of the overall health of the housing stock. This approach enables associations to identify both current and future issues as part of the association’s planned cyclical repairs and maintenance programme. Associations can no longer rely on reactive responses to problems as they arise. Instead, they must adopt a proactive strategy – anticipating potential issues and addressing them before they become problems.
Additional information sources
Accurate stock condition data is fundamental, but boards also need information from tenants and housing management staff and contractors about stock condition. Staff and contractors should be familiar with the need to report possible issues promptly so that further investigations can be made and action taken as necessary.
Boards should verify that all tenant-derived information is captured and recorded meaningfully.
Information from tenants can be drawn from several sources including direct contact, contractors visiting their homes, complaints received from tenants about the condition of their homes, and information gleaned from tenant forums and other groups.
Boards should satisfy themselves as to their association’s processes for capturing and recording all this information, and that the processes for assessing it and identifying issues and trends, and potential future issues, are sound and operate as intended.
Board oversight and performance assessment
With reliable information, boards can interrogate senior staff and properly assess their association’s performance against Awaab’s Law obligations.
Dashboards that summarise key data are helpful as a summary of the situation. However, they do not remove the need for detailed analysis of the information. Boards should rigorously examine the information presented to them to ensure they have a full and accurate picture of the maintenance and condition of their association’s housing stock.
If you would like guidance on navigating the requirements of Awaab’s Law, please do not hesitate to contact Caroline Leviss or Hugo Stephens.