The social housing regulator undertook 77 investigations into tenant-related issues last year, but found just five instances of the consumer standard being broken by social landlords.

Figures published by the Regulator of Social Housing in its review of consumer regulation in 2017/18 show that it received 534 consumer referrals, 204 of which were considered by its consumer regulation panel and 77 were investigated.

These numbers are very similar to the previous year, when it received 532 referrals, considered 217 and investigated 105, resulting in a single breach.

The regulator said it believed the dip in the proportion of investigations from 21 to 14 per cent of referrals, was

“attributable to the increase in self-referrals from registered providers and associated improvements in the quality of information provided to the regulator from registered providers, which meant that further investigations were not required”.

By Patrick Mooney, editor