Your rights
As a Local Space resident, it’s important to us that you know your rights, understand our responsibilities as a social landlord and feel confident about what to do if our services fall short of the standards you expect.
If you’re unhappy with the service you receive, you should contact us first so that we can work together to make things right. If your concerns haven’t been addressed, you can make a complaint.
We have a two-stage complaints process. If you are unhappy with the outcome of this process, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman, who will investigate your complaint.
If you don’t believe that Local Space is meeting the consumer standards, you can report your concerns to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).
What is the Regulator of Social Housing?
The Regulator of Social Housing ensures that the social housing sector delivers quality homes and services for current and future residents.
It sets standards and regulates to drive improvements in social landlords, including local authorities, and ensures that housing associations are well-governed, financially viable and offer value for money.
If the regulator receives information that shows we are not delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, they will investigate further. This may include engaging with us and/or prioritising a regulatory inspection.
Consumer standards
It’s important to us that you know what the consumer standards are so that you can ensure we are meeting them.
The consumer standards are set by the Regulator of Social Housing and set out what registered providers must do so our residents can live in safe, quality homes and hold social landlords to account.
Below are the required outcomes for each standard that we must meet as your housing provider.
The safety and quality standard
Stock quality
We must have an accurate and up to date understanding of the condition of our homes to ensure that our homes are good quality, well maintained and safe.
Decency
We must ensure that your homes meet section five of the Decent Homes Standard, unless told otherwise by the regulator.
Health and safety
We must take all reasonable steps to ensure your health and safety in your homes and associated communal areas.
Repairs, maintenance and planned improvements
We must provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas we are responsible for.
Adaptations
We must assist our residents who seek housing adaptations to access appropriate services.
The transparency, influence and accountability standard
Fairness and respect
We must treat our new and existing residents with fairness and respect.
Diverse needs
We must deliver fair and equitable outcomes for our new and existing residents with the services we deliver.
Engagement with tenants
We must take our residents’ views into account in our decision-making about how our services are delivered and communicate how these views have been considered.
Information about landlord services
We must communicate with our residents and provide information about how to use our services, what to expect from us and how to hold us to account.
Performance information
We must collect and provide information to support effective scrutiny from our residents about our performance and service delivery.
Complaints
We must ensure that complaints are addressed fairly, effectively and promptly.
The neighbourhood and community standard
Safety of shared spaces
We must work cooperatively with our residents, other landlords and relevant organisations to take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of shared spaces.
Local cooperation
We must co-operate with relevant partners to promote social, environmental and economic wellbeing in the areas we provide social housing.
Antisocial behaviour and hate incidents
We must work in partnership with appropriate local authority departments, the police and other relevant organisations to deter and tackle antisocial behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where we provide social housing.
Domestic abuse
We must work co-operatively with other agencies tackling domestic abuse and enable our residents to access appropriate support and advice.
The tenancy standard
This standard does not apply to those who pay intermediate rent. If you aren’t sure if this applies to you, please get in touch with us.
Allocations and lettings
We must allocate and let our homes in a fair and transparent way that takes the needs of our new and existing residents into account.
Tenancy sustainment and evictions
We must support our residents to maintain a tenancy or licence with us. Where we end a tenancy or licence, we must offer advice and assistance.
Tenure
We must offer tenancies or terms of occupation which are compatible with the purpose of the accommodation, the needs of the individual households, the sustainability of the community and the efficient use of our homes.
We must meet all applicable statutory and legal requirements in relation to the form and use of the tenancy agreements or terms of occupation.
Mutual exchange
We must support relevant residents living in eligible housing to mutually exchange their homes.
How can you report concerns or breaches of the consumer standards?
If you need to report a repair or you have a complaint, please let us know so that we can work together to make things right.
You can report concerns to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) if you believe that Local Space is not meeting the consumer standards – this is called ‘making a referral’.
You can make a referral online, via email or by post. The RSH will evaluate your referral and assess whether they are able to act upon it.
The GOV.UK website tells you what to include in a referral, how to make a referral and what to expect after you make a referral.
How do we make sure we’re meeting the consumer standards?
We want to share how we hold ourselves to account, because trust matters to us. To ensure we meet the consumer standards and offer meaningful improvements:
- Our Resident Policy and Scrutiny Panel (RPSP) provides feedback on Local Space services, with a particular focus on areas where residents have highlighted the need for improvement. The RPSP works in partnership with the team at Local Space to shape policies, challenge performance, and ensure accountability.
- We have a dedicated Customer Services Committee on our Board that puts residents at the heart of influencing key decisions and brings together residents and non-executive directors to scrutinise our performance.
- We survey hundreds of residents throughout the year to identify trends in dissatisfaction and hold focus groups to find out more about what matters to you.
- We hold quarterly ‘learning from complaints’ sessions with managers to review trends and emerging themes to improve our services.
- Our complaints process is in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and we conduct and submit an annual self-assessment for the Housing Ombudsman to scrutinise.
Get in touch
If you’re unhappy with the service you receive, contact us first so we can work to make things right.
Complaints and feedback
If you contact us and your concerns haven’t been addressed, you can make a complaint, following our complaints policy.