The Role of Housing Regulations and Organizational Compliance

Introduction

In general, housing is living spaces which are constructed as assigned for usage to serve the purpose of sheltering people. In this presentation, the role of housing regulations and the way housing organisations are to ensure regulatory requirements are being discussed.

Role of regulation in housing

The role of the regulation in housing is to ensure health and safety as well as welfare of the tenants while living in the spaces. They act to underpin effective construction assurance which intends to improve power and fuel conservation, enhance and protect the environment as well as promote sustainable development of the housing. The regulation in housing also has the role to avoid risks and refers steps to be taken by the housing organisations so that they are able to meet the regulatory requirements to avoid violation of law (www.mid-walesha.co.uk, 2017).

Ways to meet housing regulatory requirements by the housing organisations

There are various key features mentioned under the housing regulation by the Welsh Government abiding by could help the housing organisations to easily meet the regulatory requirements.

Risks: The housing organisations to ensure to meet the regulatory requirements in housing are to perform regular self-evaluation regarding their performance. This is because it is going to inform them which issues and risks are being experienced at the housing that they need to focus on and to be resolved so that the mentioned requirements are properly met. The self-evaluation method selected by the housing organisations required to comply with the advice and guidance of the government of the region as well as the nation (rhondda.org, 2017). This is because it would help to ensure proper judgement of risks. The performance standards help housing organisations to identify key risks and issues being faced in the housing business and their present situation in relation to those which are to be resolved to strategically run the business to ensure governance. Thus, to meet regulatory requirements regarding housing the organisations need to focus on the way of meeting the mentioned performance standards in the regulations. This is because by achieving them the organisations would be able to allow better control over risk in living spaces for the tenants ensuring meeting of the regulations (rhondda.org, 2017). The compliance statement is issued by the Housing Board where it is mentioned that housing organisations are assured or satisfied that the housing built by them has able to meet all the standards of performance. However, in case of non-compliance, the statement mentions the explanations as well as summarises the actions it is required to take for improving compliance that would help to appraise the regulatory requirements. Thus, it helps the housing organisations to ensure as well as identify ways in which all the regulatory requirement regarding housing can be met by resolving risks (rhondda.org, 2017; Gupta and Kapsali, 2016).

Tenant Involvement: The Tenant involvement is a part of housing regulation which refers to ensure certain activities being undertaken by the housing organisation by engaging the residents in the housing for facilitating effective improvement of the services being presently provided to them. The involvement of the tenants to meet the housing regulatory requirements by the organisations can be made by arranging an awareness activity and survey of the residents, forming tenant scrutiny panel and focus group and others. Moreover, the tenant involvement can be met by the housing organisation by offering training to the residents to develop effective skills so that they are able to become board members or members on the scrutiny panel helping organisations to meet the regulatory requirements for housing (Thurber and Fraser, 2016; www.mid-walesha.co.uk, 2017).

Governance & Financial viability: Then housing organisations to meet governance and financial viability require to demonstrate that the actions taken by them in building and managing the housing are consistent as well as relevant to the codes of practices related them. Moreover, the housing organisations to ensure they have requisite skills and knowledge for performing and controlling function in this sector as per regulatory requirements it is needed that they prove through their business activities that they have requisite and appropriate skill strategy. In order to meet governance regulations, the organisation in the housing sector are to ensure that all the decisions made are done with appropriate internal as well as external advice and expertise which are able to satisfy them and tenants without any partiality. The housing organisations to meet financial viability require ensuring that they have proper access to enough available and committed liability in all cases. This means that they require having proper knowledge about cash flow as well as any situation regarding drawdown for managing cash risks in an effective manner. The organisations while using capital income also requires having proper planning regarding cash flows for meeting future operating expenses so that financial viability requirements in the regulations are effectively met (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2015).

Risk management: The housing organisation to ensure effective risk management as per mentioned requirements in regulations need to ensure that their present decision does not put the short-term goals before the long term business sustainability and the security of social housing assets (rhondda.org, 2017).

Value for money: The organisation to meet the regulatory requirement of value for money need to develop comparison for their cost of delivering services and resources as well as key performance indicators in all the area of the business. This can be done by them by executing benchmark analysis annually in all the business areas for identification of the low-cost services as well as high performing costs. It is required to learn the best practices as well as change process and procedure to be followed for enhanced working methods and reduction of unnecessary expenditure (www.gatesheadhousing.co.uk, 2017; www.gov.uk, 2018).

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that the role of regulations in housing is to help the organisations operating in this sector to provide safe and healthy living of the tenants. The housing requirements mentioned in the legislation can be abided through benchmarking, survey, performance standard analysis, risk analysis and others.

References

• assets.publishing.service.gov.uk 2015, Governance and Financial Viability Standard Code of Practice, Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419361/GandFV_Standard_code_of_practice_2015.pdf [Accessed on: 18 January 2019]
• Gupta, R. and Kapsali, M., 2016. Evaluating the ‘as-built’performance of an eco-housing development in the UK. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 37(2), pp.220-242.
• rhondda.org 2017, Welsh Government Housing Regulation The Regulatory Framework for Housing Associations Registered in Wales, Available at: https://rhondda.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/170612-housingregframework-en.pdf [Accessed on: 18 January 2019]
• Thurber, A. and Fraser, J., 2016. Disrupting the order of things: public housing tenant organizing for material, political and epistemological justice. Cities, 57, pp.55-61.
• www.gatesheadhousing.co.uk 2017, Value for money – efficiency, effectiveness and economy, Available at: https://www.gatesheadhousing.co.uk/value-for-money/ [Accessed on: 18 January 2019]
• www.gov.uk 2018, Value for Money Metrics Technical Note, Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/value-for-money-metrics-technical-note [Accessed on: 18 January 2019]
• www.mid-walesha.co.uk 2017, Regulation of Housing Associations in Wales, Available at: https://www.mid-walesha.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/RegulationOfHAFAQ%28Eng%29.pdf [Accessed on: 18 January 2019]