RSH to increase fees for social landlords to recoup costs of consumer regulation

The RSH said fees will be introduced for councils that own more than 1,000 homes to cover the regulator’s “more active regulation” of them against the consumer standards, including the new inspection programme.

 

There will also be new charges for organisations that apply to become registered providers (RPs), in place of the current approach where they pay after successfully registering.

 

The RSH will continue to charge a flat annual fee to smaller private RPs, meaning those owning fewer than 1,000 social homes.

 

It will charge larger social landlords, meaning those with more than 1,000 social homes including local authorities, according to the number of homes they provide.

 

The regulator said the changes will ensure that it “has the resources, skills and capacity to deliver its wider regulatory role”.

 

This includes its new programme of inspections for all social landlords that own more than 1,000 homes, as well as its ongoing regulation of private RPs’ financial viability and governance. 

 

Fiona MacGregor, chief executive of the RSH, said: “The changes to our fee principles will give us the resources we need to deliver our new regulatory role, which will help to drive long-term improvement in social landlords for the benefit of tenants.

 

“We are grateful for the feedback we received during the consultation, which we carefully considered in reaching the final outcome.

 

“We recognise the importance of providing value for money for fee payers and we will continue to focus on regulating in an effective and efficient way.”

 

Application fees

 

The RSH will no longer charge an initial registration fee of £2,500. Instead, it will move forward with its proposed change to charge fees to those seeking to join the social housing register at the point of application, rather than only in the event of a successful registration.

 

The regulator said this is so that unsuccessful applicants meet a share of the cost of considering their application for registration.

 

As proposed, the RSH will charge an application fee of £3,000 charged in two parts, comprising a preliminary application fee of £500 and a detailed application fee of £2,500 for those who progress to this stage.

 

This comes after 82 per cent of respondents to the question on this agreed with the regulator’s proposed approach.

Annual fees for large private RPs

 

The RSH will proceed with its proposal to continue to charge large private RPs, those that own 1,000 or more social housing units, a fee per unit based on the number of social housing units they own.

 

This comes after more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of respondents agreed with this approach.

 

The regulator said that “this would recoup the remaining share of our costs attributable to private registered providers once registration fees and small private registered provider annual fees are taken into account”.

 

The fee charged to these large RPs will increase from £5.40 per social housing unit in 2023-24 to £9.28 per social housing unit in the current financial year.

 

Annual fees for large local authority RPs

 

Previously large local authority RPs, those that own 1,000 or more social housing homes, were not charged a fee.

 

The RSH has now said that for these providers it has decided to implement a fee per unit based on the number of social housing units owned.

 

The regulator said this is “the most reasonable, transparent and proportionate approach and aligns with our objective of fostering simplicity in the fee-charging process”.

 

This comes after over half (56 per cent) of respondents agreed with the proposal.

 

In 2024-25, the RSH will charge large local authority RPs an annualised fee of £6.63 per social housing unit.

 

Annual fees for small private RPs

 

The RSH said it will continue to charge a fixed fee level for all small private RPs, those with fewer than 1,000 social housing units.

 

This will contribute to the cost of their regulation, including maintaining the register, and comes as over half (58 per cent) of respondents agreed with this approach.

 

The fee charged to these small RPs will more than double from a £300 flat fee per entity in 2023-24 to a £650 flat fee per entity during the current financial year.

 

Annual fees for small local authority RPs

 

Previously, small local authority RPs, those with fewer than 1,000 social housing units, were not charged fees.

 

Now the regulator has decided to move forward with its plans to charge a fixed fee to these providers, but said that “at this point in time this fee will be set at zero”.

 

However, the RSH said that should the level of its regulatory engagement with this type of provider change in the future then the level of this fixed fee will be reviewed.

 

Annual fees for groups headed by private RPs

 

The RSH has decided that for groups owning 1,000 or more social housing units and where the parent is a private RP, it will charge fees at the group level.

 

Other groups will be charged fees for each individual entity on the register.

 

This comes after the majority (91 per cent) agreed with the regulator’s proposal.