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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will ask the Regulator for Social Housing to explain why Clarion Housing Group’s failure to ensure that its contractor Ecolution responded within 24 hours as an urgent appointment to reports by tenants of a loss of heating and hot water in its all-electric blocks does not represent serious detriment to tenants amounting to a breach of the Home Standard.

While the framework within which the Regulator of Social Housing operates is set out in legislation, the regulator is operationally independent and it would not be appropriate for me to direct it as to how it carries out its functions.

It is important to note, however, that when considering whether consumer standards have been breached the regulator is looking to identify systemic failings in an organisation.