Our statutory consultation on the standards that social housing landlords will have to meet in the future closed on 5 February 2010.

We are currently going through the responses we have received. We expect to publish our response in March 2010, and this will set out the standards in full.

Our proposals for a standard on value for money are set out below.

The required outcomes

1   Value for money
In meeting all national standards and their local standards, registered providers have a comprehensive approach to managing their resources to provide cost-effective, efficient, quality services and homes to meet tenants’ and potential tenants’ needs.

Specific requirements

1. Value for money
1.1  Registered providers publish, as part of their communications with their tenants, information on at least an annual basis that demonstrates:

• how they have allocated and prioritised expenditure on different areas of housing services covered by the national standards and their local standards and other priorities such as investment in the supply of new social housing
• how they have ensured that it has secured value for money in that expenditure, how they have tested this, and the benefits that tenants can expect
• their expectations for future value for money improvements and how they have taken into account in these expectations improvements arising from asset management, income management and procurement policies

1.2 Registered providers have arrangements for tenants to influence the services delivered and the cost of those services that result in service charges to tenants. Registered providers must ensure their tenants have the opportunity to agree a local standard (in line with the requirements of 2.4 of the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard).

1.3 Registered providers’ governing bodies scrutinise the performance of the registered provider at least annually against this standard.