The social housing regulator has not judged a single complaint from a tenant serious enough to warrant investigation despite receiving nearly 500 since April 2012.
The Homes and Communities Agency regulation committee says no tenant complaints received about social landlords since it took over regulation have met its ‘serious detriment’ test. The committee, unlike its predecessor the Tenant Services Authority, only intervenes in consumer complaints where it judges there is a risk of serious harm to tenants.
Figures seen exclusively this week by Inside Housing show the extent of the regulator’s withdrawal from dealing with tenant complaints.
Of 489 consumer enquiries received since 1 April 2012, 127 were deemed worthy of further enquiry and just 23 of those were assessed in more detail. Although seven of these cases are currently still being considered, none so far have met the serious detriment test. This includes 10 complaints from the ‘democratic filter’ – MPs, councillors, tenant panels or tenant groups, to which tenants are now expected to turn for help in the first instance.
The TSA intervened in 56 cases out of 2,298 complaints received from April 2010 to March 2012.
The HCA regulation committee refused to reveal the nature of the cases which did not meet the threshold as it is still ‘processing the details’, but it said previously some rejected complaints involved fire safety issues.
The figures are likely to reinforce fears the regulator is unlikely to ever again intervene in consumer cases.
Michael Gelling, chair of the Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England, said tenants have been ‘disempowered’ by the higher threshold for complaints.
He added: ‘We don’t know how to advise tenants as it is not clear what serious detriment is.’
An HCA spokesperson said the regulator will publish case study examples in the autumn to help people understand what constitutes serious detriment.