Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if the Regulator of Social Housing will introduce specific standards for dealing with complaints of racism in social housing.

All people living in social housing must be treated with fairness and respect, and their complaints – including those of racism - must be handled effectively by registered providers.

The Regulator of Social Housing has four consumer standards governing landlord services, which landlords are required to meet. The Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard requires providers to treat all tenants with fairness and respect, have an approach to complaints that is clear, simple and accessible, and ensure that complaints are resolved promptly, politely and fairly.

Following the commitments made in the Charter for Social Housing Residents, we are working with the Regulator of Social Housing to create a strong, proactive consumer regulatory regime. We will give the Regulator the powers to proactively monitor and drive compliance with the consumer standards, with new tenant satisfaction measures on issues including complaints handling. The Regulator will also revise the standards to ensure they are fit for purpose.

We will introduce legislation as soon as is practicable to bring forward the new consumer regime.