The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published the Rent Standard 2026, which sets out the requirements governing how registered providers must set and increase social housing rents from 1 April 2026. The Rent Standard reflects the government’s revised Policy Statement on Rents for Social Housing. Under the standard, registered providers will generally be permitted to increase rents by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) plus 1% each year. It also permits additional increases where rents are below the relevant formula rent, subject to specified limits, allowing rents to move gradually towards formula levels.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published an overview of value for money performance by private registered providers in England for the year ending 2025, outlining compliance with the Value for Money Standard. The report states that higher interest rates, increased investment in existing homes, and ongoing building safety and energy‑efficiency requirements continued to raise headline costs and depress operating margins. These pressures also reduced earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, major repairs included (EBITDA‑MRI) interest cover, prompting providers to balance the need to maintain existing stock against reduced capacity for new development, particularly outside the social housing sector. Although the sector invested record levels of capital in existing and new homes, performance varied widely. A small number of very large providers materially reduced the weighted sector average, while London‑based providers faced the highest costs due to a greater concentration of high‑rise properties.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published its analysis of large social landlords' Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) results for the second year of mandatory collection. Landlords owning 1,000 homes or more must submit annual TSM results under RSH's Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard. The analysis covers 22 measures comprising 12 tenant perception questions and 10 management information questions relating to repairs, complaints and anti-social behaviour. Nearly half a million tenants were surveyed, with key findings showing 70% satisfaction with overall service in low cost rental accommodation, 36% satisfaction with complaint handling, and 48% satisfaction among shared owners. Management information showed 99.7% compliance with gas safety checks, 98.7% with fire safety checks, and 79% of non-emergency repairs completed within target timescales. RSH is following up with landlords whose results indicate they are outliers and those with data quality concerns, using TSM data alongside inspections and responsive investigations to assess compliance with consumer standards.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published its annual review of consumer regulation work from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. The RSH highlights key points for landlords which include that they must meet health and safety requirements to keep tenants safe; know the up-to-date conditions of homes; have an effective complaints handling process; engage and treat all tenants with fairness and refer them to the RSH when they find a material issue.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published a collection of regulatory standards for social housing landlords in England. This consists of consumer standards and economic standards. The consumer standards include neighbourhood and community standard, as well as tenancy standard which have both been updated reflect changes to consumer standards from 1 April 2024. It also includes safety and quality standard, transparency, influence and accountability, and lastly, the consumer standards Code of Practice.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published the outcome to its consultation on proposed changes to consumer standards and requirements, which ran from 9 December 2025 to 3 March 2026 and received 872 responses. The RSH has issued an updated Transparency, Influence and Accountability (TI&A) Standard, a new Competence and Conduct Standard, a revised Consumer Standards Code of Practice and a direction on Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), all coming into force on 1 October 2026. A phased approach applies to the information requests element of the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) and the qualifications element of the competence and conduct requirements. On the STAIRs changes, 86% of respondents agreed the proposed TI&A Standard accurately reflected the government's direction. On competence and conduct, while 84% of survey and written respondents agreed, all 699 responses received via a shelter-led social media campaign disagreed, calling for a separate standard. In response, RSH repositioned the competence and conduct requirements as a distinct Competence and Conduct Standard to improve visibility. RSH also strengthened the code to emphasise that landlords should support fair and equitable outcomes for tenants, including those with protected characteristics. On TSM changes, 90% of respondents agreed with the proposals, and 89% agreed with the proposed code revisions.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published consumer standard gradings and annual stability check outcomes for multiple social housing landlords on 14 January 2026. Broxtowe Borough Council received a C3 grading, indicating serious failings in delivering consumer standard outcomes, with RSH identifying more than 3,000 overdue fire remedial actions, inadequate tenant information systems, and insufficient understanding of diverse tenant needs. Manchester City Council received a C2 grading, reflecting some weaknesses requiring improvement, particularly regarding tenant satisfaction with repairs and anti-social behaviour. RSH also published stability check outcomes for nine landlords, with Livin regraded from V2 to V1 viability, Vico regraded from V1 to V2 viability, and Together Housing upgraded from C2 to C1 consumer grading. The remaining landlords retained their previous governance and viability gradings. These assessments form part of RSH's four-year inspection programme, which reaches its halfway point in April 2026.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published the findings from its latest quarterly survey on the fire safety of buildings taller than 11 metres in the social housing sector. The publication provides an overview of the status of fire safety remediation for buildings owned by registered social landlords at an aggregate level. The data from the survey relates to landlords’ obligations under the Fire Safety (Regulatory) Order 2005, SI 2005/1541 for assessing fire safety risks associated with the relevant parts of those buildings, risks landlords have identified, particularly in relation to external wall systems and landlords’ plans for remediating buildings they have identified as having life critical fire safety risks.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published its first annual review of regulatory casework since the launch of its new inspection programme on 1 April 2024. The review examines key themes in RSH’s oversight of governance, financial viability and consumer regulation of social landlords, and reports the publication of over 100 regulatory judgements during this period. It highlights six key priorities for landlords: maintaining strong governance and risk management practices, ensuring tenant safety through effective board and councillor oversight, keeping property and tenant data up-to-date, integrating tenant feedback into decision-making, managing financial viability to optimise resource allocation, and self-reporting standard breaches to RSH.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published the first set of regulatory judgments from its planned inspection outcomes. RSH inspected Watford Community Housing Trust and Nottingham Community Housing Association Limited and confirmed that they meet their governance and viability requirements. RSH has confirmed that inspections will take place over at least a four-year cycle and that it expects to publish more judgments from the first wave of inspections.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published findings from its voluntary Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) data submission pilot, which involved 98 small social housing providers, including local authorities, almshouses, for-profit providers and supported housing specialists. The pilot assessed providers' experiences in collecting TSMs and evaluated the potential benefits and challenges of data submission. RSH concluded it will continue its existing policy of not requiring small providers to submit data, citing challenges in making meaningful comparisons and the potential administrative burden. Small providers are still required to collect and publish TSMs. RSH plans to publish its analysis of large landlords' second-year TSM results later in autumn 2025.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published regulatory judgements for multiple social housing providers, including downgrading Canterbury City Council to a C3 grading for failing to meet consumer standards outcomes. The inspection identified serious failings in health and safety remedial works completion, gaps in property data with only 27.5% of homes surveyed, absence of current adaptations policy, weaknesses in anti-social behaviour reporting and delays in complaints responses. RSH also issued C2 gradings to Cambridge City Council, Trident Housing Association, Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council following planned inspections, indicating weaknesses requiring improvement in consumer standards delivery. Trident Housing Association received an upgraded G1 governance grading while maintaining its V2 viability rating. Cambridge City Council and Trident Housing Association have addressed previous rent standard issues, with both implementing tenant refund arrangements and strengthened internal controls following earlier regulatory judgements from July 2024 and December 2024 respectively.