Recommendation 49

The removal of the ‘serious detriment’ test will make it much easier for the regulator to inspect providers proactively and to survey properties where it has reason to suspect serious disrepair. We welcome this development as perhaps the most important reform of the consumer regulatory regime. We appreciate that proactively surveying properties could be burdensome, if done on a large scale, but we do not think the regulator should limit itself to using its powers to survey only reactively.