The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has released its second Decision Statement for the new Transparency, Influence and Accountability (TI&A) Standard. In this post, we discuss some of the key outcomes from this Decision Statement compared to the original consultation proposals, and what RPs should expect when the new TI&A Standard is enforced from October 2026. 

Competence and Conduct Standard – more clarification to come

Following consultation responses, the key change has been to remove the Competence and Conduct provisions from the TI&A Standard and create a standalone Competence and Conduct Standard reflecting stakeholder views that these requirements should have greater prominence and better align with the Government’s Direction. This change has been made to make the competence and conduct requirements more visible to landlords and tenants. Aside from this presentational change, the new standard contains the same wording as was proposed back in March, but there is now a defined terms section. Beyond this, however, relatively little has changed since the original consultation. The RSH did not make substantive changes to the competence and conduct requirements themselves, rejecting requests to amend qualification requirements to include specific anti-racism course content as part of the qualification requirements, as race is a protected characteristic, alongside other protected characteristics and is already part of the course content requirements for equality, diversity and inclusion. 

The RSH has confirmed it will not require more junior and frontline staff to undertake specific qualifications, as the legislation relating to qualifications in this area is limited to senior housing executives and senior housing managers for good reason. Senior executives and managerial staff play a major role in shaping the culture of their organisations and so RSH believes that implementing mandatory qualifications at this level could be highly effective in driving up professionalism and culture change within organisations. 

This second Decision Statement acknowledged the many requests for further clarification on a range of policy issues, including the definition of relevant staff and scope of requirements for service providers; the definition of appropriate skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours and how landlords should embed the code of conduct, as well as how the RSH will regulate compliance with the standard. The RSH has refused to provide any clarification at this point. Helpfully, the RSH has proposed to produce a FAQ document in co-operation with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, addressing these questions, which will be updated periodically as required.

This Decision Statement provides some welcome clarification, particularly the creation of a standalone Competence and Conduct Standard and confirmation that qualification requirements will remain focused on senior housing roles, many of the practical questions raised by providers remain unanswered. The proposed FAQ document will therefore be an important next step and is likely to be closely scrutinised by the sector for further clarity on implementation and regulatory expectations. The question is whether it can be provided in sufficient time before the Competence and Conduct Standard comes into force this October 2026 and the transition period and road towards compliance begins. 

STAIRs – little news is good news

The outcome of the RSH’s consultation on amendments to the TI&A Standard has led to minimal changes to the proposed version issued under the consultation, save that the published version of the amended standard emphasises that the information to be published by RPs should concern the services provided by them in relation to the management of their social housing function (see Annex 1 paragraph 1.7 of the TI&A Standard). In addition, whilst the RSH has amended the Code of Practice on STAIRs to confirm communications should be clear and accessible for tenants with diverse needs, the Code confirms that making information accessible does not amount to the creation of new information. Providers should consider what steps they need to take to ensure that published information can be provided in an accessible format for tenants, as set out in the STAIRs operational guidance written by Anthony Collins in partnership with the National Housing Federation (available free to NHF members and here for non-members). 

TSMs - a split decision

The RSH has already delivered a thorough decision on the new electrical safety TSM.  You can read a post by Lorna Kenyon-Pain and Elizabeth Massey about this earlier Decision Statement here. However, the remaining changes discussed in this Decision Statement are relatively practical and clear, hence they were largely supported by respondents to the consultation. Despite moving the annual reporting obligation from the TI&A Standard into the TSM Direction, the RSH still requires landlords to publish TSM performance to be accessible for tenants. 

How can we help?

 As a market-leading adviser to RPs across England, we are well placed to support you through the changes introduced by STAIRs, the Competence and Conduct Standard, and the TSMs.  We are a social purpose law firm which wants to enable the social housing sector to improve lives and outcomes across England and Wales. Since we act for over 120 RPs nationally, we understand how the changing regulatory environment affects your organisation in the short and long term. 

If you would like to discuss how the measures in this second Decision Statement affect your organisation, please get in touch.