Responding to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announcement that ‘Ofsted-style’ inspections and unlimited fines will be introduced for failing social landlords, Cllr David Renard, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said:

“The vast majority of social landlords are responsible and provide decent housing to tenants and residents, but recent reports have shone a light on the need for continuous learning and improvement to be made.

“Councils want all residents to be able to live in safe and secure, high-quality housing. The LGA continues to support councils to improve their housing management services and engagement with tenants and residents through the delivery of a social housing management peer challenge and promotion of best practice, as part of our sector support offer.

“As well as improving existing homes, the social housing supply is not sufficient to meeting the current housing demand, which is why we want to see long-term plans to give councils powers to build 100,000 high-quality, climate-friendly social homes a year, including reform of the Right to Buy scheme, which has made it difficult for councils to build replacement homes at the rate at which they are sold.”