When we make decisions about our services, we must take our customers’ views into account and communicate these to them.

We must give tenants a wide range of meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise our strategies, policies and services.

If customers want to implement tenant-led activities to influence and scrutinise our strategies, policies and services, we will support them to do so.

We must provide accessible support that meets the diverse needs of our customers.

We are required to support tenants to exercise their Right to Manage, Right to Transfer or otherwise exercise housing management functions, where appropriate.

It is important we work with our customers to consider how to improve and tailor our approach when delivering services, including tenant engagement.

The Regulator of Social Housing also sets out in this standard that where a registered provider is considering a change in landlord for one or more tenants, or a significant change in management arrangements, it must consult affected tenants on its proposals at a formative stage and take those views into account in reaching a decision.

The consultation must:

• be fair and accessible
• provide tenants with adequate time, information and opportunities to consider and respond
• set out actual or potential advantages and disadvantages (including costs) to tenants in the immediate and longer term
• demonstrate to affected tenants how the consultation responses have been considered in reaching a decision

We must treat existing customers and prospective tenants with fairness and respect.

We must communicate with customers and provide information so they can use landlord services, understand what to expect from their landlord, and hold their landlord to account.

We are required to provide customers with accessible information about the:

• services available to them, how they access them and the standards of service they can expect
• the safety and quality standards customers’ homes and communal areas will meet
• rents and service charges that customers pay
• our responsibilities and those of our customers when it comes to maintaining homes, communal areas, shared spaces and neighbourhoods

We must provide customers with accessible information about their rights regarding registered providers’ legal obligations and relevant regulatory requirements that registered providers must meet in connection with the homes, facilities or services we provide. 

This must include information about:

• the requirement to provide a home that meets the government’s Decent Homes Standard
• our obligation to comply with health and safety legislation
• the rights conferred on tenants by their tenancy agreements, including rights implied by statute and/or common law
• the rights of disabled customers to reasonable adjustments.

When we deliver services, we must communicate with affected customers on the progress, next steps and outcomes.

We are required to ensure our housing and neighbourhood policies are fair, reasonable, accessible and transparent. 

Where relevant, policies should set out decision-making criteria and appeals processes.

Information must be made available to customers about the relevant roles and responsibilities of senior level employees or officers, including who has responsibility for compliance with the Consumer Standards.

We must collect and provide information to enable our customers to scrutinise our performance.

We must meet the Regulator of Social Housing's requirements in relation to the tenant satisfaction measures. 

The regulator says we must:

• collect and process information specified by the regulator relating to our performance against the tenant satisfaction measures
• annually publish our performance against the tenant satisfaction measures
• annually submit to the regulator information specified by the regulator relating to our performance against those measures

The information we provide must be accurate, reliable, valid and a transparent reflection of our performance against the tenant satisfaction measures.

Customers must receive accessible information about:

• how we are performing in delivering services and what actions we will take to improve performance, where required
• how we have taken customers’ views into account to improve services, information and communication
• how income is being spent
• the directors’ remuneration and management costs