A year on from the Better Social Housing Review – what’s changing?

The National Housing Federation (NHF) and Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) have jointly published an update on our work on the Better Social Housing Review, one year since the independent panel made seven recommendations for the social housing sector.  

At the NHF and CIH, we responded to the BSHR’s seven recommendations with a joint action plan, published May 2023. The action plan sets out resources, tools and programmes of work to support social landlords to make positive changes. 

The report launched today, ‘A year on from the Better Social Housing Review – what’s changing?’, looks at where we are now as a sector, one year on from the BSHR and six months on from the NHF and CIH’s BSHR action plan. 

The BSHR action plan and our work on quality and resident engagement is a long-term piece of work, but the sector has made progress over the past year. In this publication, we outline our work on the recommendations of the BSHR and highlight best practice from housing associations navigating the changes.

We know that housing associations are facing many challenges, including navigating a cost of living crisis and new regulations for the social housing sector. We hope this update will help housing associations navigate the BSHR recommendations, adapt to changes across the sector and show colleagues and stakeholders what progress is being made.  

Download the report

What happens next? 

At the NHF, we are committed to taking the BSHR’s recommendations forward and helping our members create positive change. However, the challenge requires collaboration and comprehensive funding, and we need the government to support this work on quality of social homes.  

In the run up to the next general election, we’ll be working with political stakeholders from all major parties to put long-term funding, policy and regulatory stability on their agenda. We’re calling on the party that forms the next government to urgently fund new social homes and the regeneration and insulation of existing homes. 

We will also be aligning our work on the BSHR with our work with the Regulator of Social Housing and the government on the new regulations being ushered in through the Social Housing Regulation Act. It is our aim to make sure that the new regulations work for the social housing sector and feed into the aims of the BSHR, through a period of consultation.  

If you have any questions about this report, or want to know more about our work on the BSHR and quality of homes, please don't hestitate to get in touch using the contact details below.