The cross-party Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee says that the progress in bringing the condition of social homes up to a minimum standard has almost ground to a halt.
A new report by the committee found that, while most social homes provide tenants with warm, safe and decent places to live, too many people are living in poor conditions and do not have complaints treated seriously.
It outlined that the minimum standard of what is considered a decent home has not changed in twenty years, and says that the fact that just under 430,000 social homes still fail to meet this basic standard is “not acceptable”.
The committee’s report calls for the government to use the delayed Long-term Housing Strategy to deliver an approach which addresses the twin objectives of building more social homes while ensuring conditions in existing housing stock are improved.
The report recommends that the government establishes a new, modern Decent Homes Programme that supports social landlords to raise the standard of social homes, which includes a pooled fund for improvements to social homes and a single housing quality framework to consolidate the regulatory requirements on social landlords.
Florence Eshalomi MP, chair of the HCLG Committee, said: “Whether it is residents living in poorly insulated homes, experiencing overcrowding, or enduring housing with damp or mould, it’s vital that government measures, including Awaab’s Law and the New Decent Homes Standard, bring a meaningful improvement to social housing conditions.”
“The government deserves credit for the steps taken to rebuild the sector’s financial capacity after years of underinvestment. However, we do have concerns about the resources available to social housing providers to meet the government’s new social homes target while also raising standards over the decade.”
“The government’s Long-term Housing Strategy needs to set out a credible plan to tackle the need to improve existing housing stock while encouraging social landlords to build the new social homes the country needs.”
The report agrees with the government’s decision to roll out Awaab’s Law in phases, focusing on tackling the most dangerous hazards first, but warns that social landlords and tenants need a much clearer roadmap for when the remaining phases of Awaab’s Law will be introduced.
It also calls on the government to urgently set and publish the timeline for extending Awaab’s Law to all remaining hazards, so that tenants and social landlords have clarity about when they can expect these new regulations to apply.
High energy prices, the report warns, mean households living in homes that comply with the government’s new minimum energy efficiency standard may still be in fuel poverty, if they struggle to afford to heat their home sufficiently. The committee therefore recommends that the government revise the official definition of fuel poverty to reflect this in the forthcoming Fuel Poverty Strategy.
The government’s proposed changes to the Decent Homes Standard have been welcomed by the committee, with the report noting that the “current standard has been out-of-date for some time and is in urgent need of reform, given that it was last updated in 2006”.
To demonstrate to tenants and the public that progress is being made, the report recommends the government put in place interim targets in homes upgrading to the revised Decent Homes Standard.
The report also calls on the Government to introduce a review to update the Decent Homes Standard at least every 10 years to ensure it “reflects the changing needs of the population, environmental pressures, scientific evidence of the hazards to health from poor housing and societal expectations of what a decent home consists of”.
