This thesis examines the regulation of social housing in England. Its temporal focus is bookended by two key pieces of legislation: the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. The 2023 Act was badged as a ‘radical’ intervention, and its roots can be traced to the catastrophic Grenfell Tower Fire in June 2017, which claimed 72 lives. Yet, many of the measures within the 2023 Act merely unwind the de-regulatory settlement introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government from 2011.
By exploring the intervening fifteen years of social housing regulation, this research considers the development of the regulatory framework and its response to de-regulation. It engages extensively with the academic literature on regulation, and deploys the concept of ‘meta-regulation’, which captures the regulation of self-regulation, as a lens through which to understand social housing regulation.
Informed by its empirical dataset – primarily qualitative interviews with providers of social housing, tenants, regulators, and other stakeholders – the thesis charts the development and implementation of an array of meta-regulatory technologies, including risk-based regulation, inspections, self-referrals, and regulatory gradings. Throughout, its focus is placed on how these technologies have been embedded within the regulatory system, and how they are experienced by regulatory actors and stakeholders.
The thesis makes a number of core contributions to the limited literature on the regulation of social housing. First, it connects the post-2008 regulatory approach to broader schools of regulatory thought. Second, through its meta-regulatory analysis, it offers a novel and detailed examination of key instruments of social housing regulation. Given that the post-2023 regime largely extends the use of these instruments, it represents an important evidential baseline against which the new regime can be evaluated. Finally, it contributes to the emergent literature on meta-regulation by examining the deployment of multiple technologies within a single regime.
