Clarity, Connection and Compliance: Why Accessibility is Central to the Consumer Standards

A new era of accountability

We are all now familiar with the Regulator of Social Housing’s new Consumer Standards, in force since April 2024. They mark a step change in how housing providers must engage with residents. The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard (TIA) sets out a clear expectation: that residents should have access to the information they need, in a way they can understand, and be able to use it to influence and hold their landlord to account.

At its heart, this is about more than publishing data or holding engagement events. It’s about clarity, fairness and inclusion, ensuring that every resident, regardless of language, literacy, or disability, can access and understand the information that affects their home and their rights.

The risk of exclusion through language

For many providers, compliance is being interpreted primarily as a governance or reporting exercise. But if information isn’t accessible to residents, the principle of accountability is lost.

Too often, essential documents such as service standards, complaints policies, or safety updates are published only in English and in dense, technical language. For residents with limited English proficiency, sensory impairments, learning differences or low literacy, this creates a serious barrier to understanding. Where providers do take account of accessibility, often the promise is passive, with commitments to providing alternative formats upon request.

The result?

• Residents cannot meaningfully engage with policies or hold providers to account;
• A differential experience between those with fluency in English, or who are able to access written information, and those who cannot;
• Providers risk non-compliance with the TIA Standard;
• Most importantly, people are denied access to their own housing rights.

In human terms, this isn’t a communications issue, it’s an equality issue.

A human rights and equality duty

Housing providers have a moral duty and regulatory duty to ensure fair and accessible communication. Information that affects someone’s home and safety should be understandable to them. That’s part of treating residents with dignity.

Failure to provide information in accessible formats (for example, Easy Read, Braille, large print, audio, or translated materials) could lead to compromised resident wellbeing, closed cultures, legal risk, and certainly reputational harm.

Accessibility isn’t optional compliance; it’s a core part of equity and accountability.

What providers should do

Here are some practical steps to help housing organisations meet the spirit and the letter of the new TIA Standard:

1. Audit your communications
   Review how information is currently shared with residents. Are key documents available in accessible formats and plain language? Are translation and interpretation services easy to request? Do your residents know where to obtain translated information?
2. Know your communities
   Providers are generally very good at collecting resident data on the protected characteristics but need to be more mature in approach. Map the languages, accessibility needs and literacy levels within your resident population. This helps to target translation, alternative formats and outreach effectively.
3. Use plain English and clear design
   Even in English, jargon-heavy documents exclude. Use short sentences, headings, and everyday words. Test materials with resident groups before publication.
4. Offer choice and flexibility
   Provide information in different formats such as digital, print, visual, and audio, and make it easy for residents to say what works best for them.
5. Train staff and contractors
   Equip staff to understand accessibility responsibilities and to know how to arrange interpreters, translators, or assistive formats promptly.
6. Embed accessibility in accountability
   Make accessibility part of your performance monitoring. If residents cannot understand a policy or report, the organisation is not being transparent, regardless of how much information it shares.

 

Publicise your progress

Transparency through inclusion

Transparency, influence and accountability aren’t achieved simply by providing information, they are achieved when residents can use that information confidently and independently.

If we want a sector built on trust and fairness, then accessibility can’t be an afterthought. It must sit at the centre of how housing providers communicate, listen, and learn.

For further advice and guidance on this crucial area, reach out to the Housing Diversity Network, who have a wealth of applicable expertise.

 By John Simmonds, Associate, Housing Diversity Network