The Regulatory Casework Review - Lessons Learned

On 9 September 2025 the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) published its first Regulatory Casework Review (the Review) which covers key themes from its regulation of registered providers of social housing (RPs) against its governance, financial viability and consumer standards since the commencement of its proactive inspection programme in April 2024. The Review is intended to help strengthen the approach of individual RPs by providing key insights following the launch of the RSH’s proactive inspection regime around consumer standards for large RPs (those over 1,000 units). The aim is to create a hive of collective experience to nationally improve the quality of social housing and outcomes for tenants.

The RSH's inspection regime addresses both economic and consumer standards for private RPs and consumer standards and the Rent Standard for local authority RPs (noting that lessons learned from any governance findings can be applied voluntarily by local authorities to improve outcomes). 

The key lessons outlined in the Review are: 

1. Governance and risk management: RPs are required to have strong oversight mechanisms, strategic control and effective risk mitigations in place to meet the regulatory standards. This includes keeping up to date and comprehensive data on assets and liabilities and the safety and quality of tenants’ homes. In particular, a number of cases included in the Review noted weakness in data quality and a lack of data around the characteristics of tenants, and the need for Boards to appropriately challenge reporting around risk and performance.
2. Tenant safety and quality of homes: Ensuring that tenants are safe and their homes are well maintained remains a fundamental regulatory responsibility and RP Boards and local authority councillors need to ensure that there is effective oversight of health and safety requirements and that any identified gaps are being addressed.
3. Data use: RPs are expected to have robust and reliable data on both homes and tenants to inform decision-making across all areas of its business.
4. Tenant voice: RPs are expected to actively listen and incorporate the views of their tenants into decision making and offer a range of methods for tenant engagement. These opportunities need to be meaningful and have evidence-based results that feed into wider governance arrangements. Some case studies in the Review highlighted under-developed or ineffective engagement strategies and mechanisms.
5. Value for money: RPs need to deliver efficient, high-quality services which requires the management of financial viability so that resources are maximised to invest in current and future homes. The Review emphasises the need for a strong understanding of absolute costs and how these may fluctuate over time.
6. Accountability and self-referral: The Review emphasises that instead of waiting for the RSH to find problems through an inspection, RPs should assure themselves that they are meeting standards and identify any issues themselves. The RSH stresses that RPs should flag issues when they become aware of them, instead of waiting until a plan to address them has been put in place.

The case-studies that accompany the wider themes within the Review can be used by all social landlords to strengthen their governance, risk and operational frameworks. In particular, Boards should be considering how the quality of assurance being provided to them, and whether they are receiving appropriate information to appropriately challenge risk and performance issues where necessary.

If you'd like to discuss any points arising from the Review in further detail, please do get in touch.