It is based on responses from the housing association sector to the seven recommendations in the BHSR, and with input from the NHF’s Quality and Trust Steering Group and its Working Group on Race and Structural Inequality in the BSHR. Structural inequalities, and in particular race, were a core theme in the BSHR’s findings and therefore form an important part of the plan.

“The NFA welcomes the Better Social Housing Review report and its recommendations,” said NFA Chair Mike Ainsley.

“Although its recommendations reflect issues pertinent to the housing association sector, we acknowledge that they are also of general benefit to the whole sector. All ALMOs and their councils would benefit from reviewing them and asking whether they are already up to speed on them, or whether they give us valuable prompts on how we can improve.

“The NFA team is supporting its members to review all seven recommendations and align them with the new requirements from the Regulator for Social Housing, discussing them with tenants and their parent councils to agree which ones are particularly relevant to them locally.”

The ALMO sector has been very supportive of government work on social housing since the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire and has engaged positively with the agenda set out in the Social Housing White Paper. These efforts have resulted in a number of NFA good practice reports and workstreams including Every Voice Counts, Managing to Make a Difference and Excellence in Management and Partnership. 

The NFA’s most recent best practice report, Critical Friends, focuses on tenant scrutiny and later this year we will publish the findings from a review with colleagues at ARCH of repairs services and asset management.