RECAP: Repairs Culture, Accountability and Participation

What is RECAP?

Repairs and maintenance is one of the most visible services a landlord provides. When it goes wrong, residents feel it most. Yet too often, the people best placed to scrutinise that service have limited tools, confidence, or frameworks to do so effectively.

RECAP (Repairs Culture, Accountability and Participation) is a new CIH project, delivered in collaboration with the National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) and TPAS, running from May 2026 to summer 2027. It builds on the Rethinking Repairs and Maintenance (RERAM) project, which developed 12 guiding principles for improving repairs services across social housing. The Better Social Housing Review reinforced the call for landlords to work in genuine partnership with residents, contractors and front-facing staff to understand what excellent repairs look like. RECAP is designed to turn that ambition into a practical reality, giving residents, landlords and contractors the tools they need to make it work.

Why does RECAP matter?

RECAP starts from the premise that residents are not just the recipients of a repairs service. They are the people best placed to scrutinise it. The Better Social Housing Review (BSHR) was clear that improving repairs requires real cultural change, not just better processes. That is the gap RECAP is trying to close.

The project will engage directly with residents, landlords and contractors throughout, so that its outputs reflect a genuinely wide range of experiences rather than a single perspective. All final outputs will be freely available to the whole sector.

What will RECAP produce?

RECAP will develop a suite of practical, freely available resources for residents, landlords and contractors:

Resident scrutiny toolkit (digital-first, modular) - co-designed with TPAS and residents, for scrutiny panels, tenant chairs and resident board members
Culture and accountability framework - for landlords, housing providers and contractors
Board-level briefing materials - for boards, executives and governance leads
Sector learning report - freely available to the whole sector
Case studies from pilot landlords - shared through CIH, NHMF and TPAS channels.

What our partners say

Mike Turner | Executive director of Cardo Group and board member, NHMF

"The BSHR shone a light on the quality of repairs and maintenance services and what residents experience. RECAP builds directly on the RERAM principles to turn that ambition into a practical reality – and it matters that the people delivering those services are central to finding the solutions. At NHMF, we are passionate about driving up standards for all residents, and we are delighted to be part of a project that is committed to fair and equitable services regardless of who you are or where you live."

Jenny Osbourne | Chief executive, TPAS

"TPAS are delighted to be working on this project because we know how important a great repairs service is to tenants. RECAP has the potential to deliver practical, tangible change that the sector will surely want to embrace."

Project timeline

Date	Milestone
May 2026	Project launched. Advisory panel being established. TPAS confirmed as resident engagement partner.
Jul 2026	TPAS National Tenants Conference – panel session and open stand to raise awareness and recruit workshop participants.
Jul - Sep 2026	Online resident workshops – structured insight sessions co-facilitated with TPAS.
Sep 2026	Soft launch at Housing Community Summit, Liverpool. Resident Insight Report published.
Oct 2026	National Tenant Scrutiny Conference – return with initial findings for sector sounding board.
Jan 2027	Progress update at NHMF Maintenance Conference.
May 2027	Progress update and preview of outputs at CIH Brighton Conference.
Summer 2027	Full launch of all outputs at Housing Community Summit 2027.

How to get involved

The advisory panel will include representatives from TPAS, the NHMF and sector bodies, and will be announced shortly.

Work is being planned with residents and landlords over the rest of the year to co-design the toolkit, with a pilot planned with landlords in early 2027 before the final materials are published and promoted.

There are a number of ways you can get involved:

Join our community of practice – stay informed as the project develops
Take part in resident insight workshops – sessions are being planned for summer 2026, working with TPAS
Tell us how you scrutinise your repairs service – share what's working and where the barriers are
Come and find us at the TPAS National Tenants Conference (14-15 July 2026)
Speak to us at The Housing Community Summit (8-9 September 2026)

If you'd like to be involved or kept up to date, email policy@cih.org.

About the project

RECAP (Repairs Culture, Accountability and Participation) is being led by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) in partnership with the National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) and TPAS, and runs from May 2026 to summer 2027.

For further information, contact: Dr Eve Blezard, policy and practice lead, CIH – eve.blezard@cih.org