Finding solutions for sector renewal: coregulation as the basis of a new deal for providers

1
Finding solutions for sector renewal
co-regulation as the basis of a new deal for
providers

• Ross Fraser
• Chief Executive, HouseMark

2
Why does regulation occur in social housing?

• Government regulates social housing
• to protect public investment and assets
• to protect the consumer interest
• Government usually regulates
• supply
• service quality
• price
• governance
• financial management and viability
• disposal of assets

3
Impact of regulation on providers

• Pros
• Guarantee of professional competence, good
  governance and financial viability
• Helps attract inward investment public and
  private
• Provides reassurance to tenants, municipalities,
  government and other stakeholders
• Cons
• Data collection can be time consuming
• May limit flexibility and innovation
• May lead to excessive government control of
  provider activity

4
Self regulation part of the solution?

• An alternative approach is provider
  self-regulation
• Providers could deploy an array of
  self-regulation tools
• Performance standards
• Performance comparison
• Performance management
• Sharing of best practices
• Self assessment with external/peer challenge
• Provider bodies unlikely to want to take
  enforcement action against peers and government
  unlikely to trust them to do so

5
Co-regulation the best way forward?

• Co-regulation may be the most attractive option
• Co-regulation relies on self-regulation subject
  to a backbone of intervention by the government
  on an exception basis
• Co-regulation could be based on
• provincial government policy framework
• provider self regulation
• scrutiny and enforcement at municipal level
• Need for consistency in treatment of all
  providers municipal, non-profit and co-ops

6
Advancing the consumer interest

• Regulation seeks to protect the consumer interest
• So why are government and providers so averse to
  giving tenants a say in regulation?
• Providers should be
• Measuring, and acting on, tenant satisfaction
• Consulting tenants on service strategy
• Empowering tenants via involvement in governance
  and devolved decision making
• Government should be
• Enabling tenants to play a structural role in the
  regulatory process

7
Should regulation cover the place as well as the
provider?

• What matters to the tenant
• Service/housing quality and choice
• Affordability
• Living environment
• Quality of living environment depends on
  partnerships
• Housing providers
• Municipalities
• Other services police, health, transport,
  education etc
• Modern regulation should ensure that the place is
  somewhere people want to live
• Developing this framework is a major challenge!

8
Can providers set the regulatory agenda?

• Could a quid pro quo be struck - flexible
  co-regulation in return for a better fiscal deal?
• Could providers win the trust of the province and
  the municipalities to allow all of them to borrow
  against their assets?
• Would this new deal demonstrate a dynamic,
  forward-looking sector properly funded, well
  managed and attractive to work in?
• Could providers set the regulatory agenda?
• Or does the slow pace of voluntary performance
  improvement indicate a sector lacking the
  confidence to set the agenda?