Today’s seen the launch of the government’s Social housing green paper, which outlines proposals addressing regulation of the sector, the tenant-landlord relationship and the quality of service that tenants receive. It offers an opportunity to improve fairness, quality and safety for residents living in social housing.

In preparation for publication of the green paper, we hosted an event earlier this year with the previous housing minister Dominic Raab MP. Over 70 tenants were invited to attend and they had the opportunity to share their views on the challenges and issues that affect them. 13 other tenant engagement events were held by ministers across the country.

Mike Shepherd, our Director of Development and New Business, said: “The green paper positively addresses everybody having a safe and decent home, alongside the landlord and resident relationship. However, we believe that more needs to be done to redress the imbalance in the provision of much-needed housing specifically for social rent.

“We’re highly committed to building more social rented homes as well as homes for affordable rent, shared ownership and private sale. Having a home and the right sort of home to meet individual circumstances can dramatically impact wellbeing and peoples’ ability to maintain their tenancies. As well as providing more bright and modern homes, we want to create thriving communities that help our customers on their way to a brighter future.”

In the last year, of the 749 homes we completed, 54% were social and affordable rented homes. Another 25% allowed customers to move into a shared ownership home. Selling the rest at a market rate helped allow the housing provider to generate valuable profit, all of which it reinvests to maintain the pace of its ambitious building programme.

The green paper gives everyone the opportunity to feed in views on proposals for the future of social housing and will run until 6 November.

Visit the government website for more details on the green paper and to take part in the consultation.