My Lords, before I begin on the instrument, I need to declare an interest for this piece of business. My daughter works for Settle housing association.
I pay tribute to the work of the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, on this issue. I know she cared about it as much as I do and worked very hard in the department when she was there to make sure that this piece of work came forward. I would like to express my thanks to her for that.
In speaking to the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, known as Awaab’s law, I will also speak to the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) (Amendment) (Extension to the Social Rented Sector) Regulations 2025. The Government are clear that homes must be safe. We are determined to drive a transformational and lasting change in the quality of social housing, making sure that tenants feel safe and that landlords have clarity on requirements. These regulations are an important step.
I begin with Awaab’s law. Awaab Ishak was just two when he died in December 2020 due to prolonged mould exposure in his family home. Awaab’s death was tragic. There is nothing more painful than losing a child. How much more pain his parents must have knowing that, if they had been listened to and their social landlord had acted responsibly, their son’s death could have been avoided. Awaab’s parents repeatedly raised concerns, and their social landlord failed to act. His parents have campaigned tirelessly since then, and I want to thank them sincerely. Awaab’s law will make sure that tenants’ complaints are taken seriously and that landlords respond in a timely manner with empathy, dignity and respect. It is my sincere hope that it will build trust between landlords and tenants. For too long, tenants’ complaints about damp and mould have been treated at best with delay and failure to act and, at worst, by pushing the blame back at tenants, often using the term “lifestyle issues”—a term I banned at my council. We must do better.
The regulations imply terms into tenancy agreements requiring social landlords to investigate and remedy significant damp and mould and emergency hazards within set timeframes. Significant hazards must be investigated within 10 working days, with written summaries sent to tenants in three days and action taken in five. Emergency hazards must be made safe within 24 hours. If these timescales cannot be met, landlords must provide suitable alternative accommodation until it is safe to return. Additional works to prevent hazards from recurring must begin as quickly as possible, with a 12-week backstop from investigation, and completed within a reasonable timeframe. Once the regulations are in force, landlords must comply, and tenants can take legal action for breach of contract if they do not. The regulations take into account genuine uncontrollable circumstances preventing compliance or if landlords can prove they used all reasonable endeavours to comply with requirements.
My Lords, these are excellent regulations, sorely needed, and I commend our Government for bringing them forward. There is one problem that concerns me. They do not cover all social renters and, therefore, there is an element of discrimination. I should declare an interest as an officeholder in various Gypsy and Traveller organisations, so my noble friend the Minister will not be surprised at what I am about to say. Indeed, I asked her a Question about this very thing because Gypsies and Travellers are not covered. Although they rent their houses from social landlords, their houses are, in fact, caravans—permanent caravans—and they have amenity blocks on the sites for the use of water.
The problem is that the law does not correspond to reality. So, as I said, Gypsies and Travellers have their homes rented from social landlords on caravan sites with amenity blocks for the use of water. But my noble friend answered on 14 July:
“As caravans are not buildings according to the definitions set out in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 or the Housing Act 2004, it is the government’s position that Awaab’s Law will not extend to Gypsies and Travellers living permanently in caravans on sites with amenity blocks that are rented from social landlords”.
Usually, local authority-owned sites may be reasonably maintained. The problem there is that there are simply not enough of them. In other social landlords’ sites, the standards are simply so low as to affect health, safety and well-being.
There are different ways of framing laws so that they relate to what actually is the case. I submit that that is what the law ought to be doing. I think it is our job here in your Lordships’ House to ensure that laws fit the circumstances and values that now obtain, rather than outmoded concepts. To continue to let the law express these outmoded and unjust ideas would amount, I think, to a dereliction of our task. So I hope my noble friend can come up with some way to include these citizens who have fewer rights than other citizens.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing forward these important regulations in Grand Committee. The first concern I have is that the tragic death of Awaab occurred at the end of 2020. It then took nearly three years for the law in his name to be passed, and another two years to introduce the regulations that put the Act into effect. I get dismayed sometimes at the length of time it takes to make changes when the initial reaction is that this is a situation that requires urgent emergency attention.
I am not pointing the finger of blame at anybody; sometimes it is everybody’s and nobody’s responsibility. But if the Minister could explain why it has taken so long, it would help me to understand why we are just getting the regulations now, two years on. But I am pleased that they will be enacted next month, as I think she said.
One of the concerns I have about the regulations is the tenant’s recourse when action is not taken. They complain and say, “You’ve got to get something done”, but nothing gets done. In my experience as a councillor dealing with lots of social housing, the issue is often that tenants for whom English is perhaps not their main language, or who have moved around a lot and do not know the ins and outs of how things should work, miss out when it comes to issues such as this. Which is, of course, what happened in the tragic incident with Awaab in the first place—talking but not being heard. Again, I wonder whether the Minister could just try to close that circle for me and say that there will be somebody who will say, “If you make a complaint, we’re going to make sure something happens”.
The last point I make about these regulations is that they have come about because either current or former local authority housing—the better-quality housing—has gone under right to buy. Consequently, when councils are fulfilling their duty to house homeless families, often what is left is poor-quality housing. There is an awful circle of deprivation that we cannot seem to break out of—I know that this is an attempt to do so—where homeless families go into the poorest quality housing. Often, they are families who will have to move again and again, where English is not their first language, or they may have learning difficulties. When they try to complain, nobody listens, because they do not have the clout that others have. And so it goes on. I know that this is an attempt to break that cycle; we just need to do a bit more. But I am pleased it is coming.
My Lords, I declare my interest as vice-president of the Local Government Association. I thank the Minister for introducing these statutory instruments.
The first of these instruments follows the tragic death of two year-old Awaab Ishak in 2020, a deeply distressing case with which I am all too familiar. My heart goes out to his family, who have been fighting this case for almost five years. Awaab lost his life due to prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s social housing. Awaab’s family and parents did all they could to get the local social housing provider to deal with the problems, to no avail. His death serves as a stark and painful reminder of the devastating consequences that follow when serious hazards in social housing are unaddressed.
This statutory instrument seeks to implement part of Awaab’s law, introduced under the previous Government through the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. It sets time-bound legal duties on landlords to investigate hazards, communicate with tenants in writing and resolve issues within set deadlines.
This is a welcome legal framework, but it begs serious questions. Most urgently, why has it taken so long? When we were in government, our intention was to act, and we were planning to bring in these protections by autumn 2024, following the consultation. At that time, we were already in dialogue with people in the social housing sector, many of whom had proactively begun updating their internal procedures to reflect the law’s requirements. Indeed, in my experience, housing associations and local authorities were already taking steps to improve how they handled damp and mould complaints, introducing clear communication strategies and triaging cases based on vulnerability and risk.
I ask the Minister directly: why has it taken until September 2025 for this instrument to be brought forward, when the tragedy that prompted it occurred in 2020 and the consultation concluded earlier this year? Why have the Government allowed yet another winter to pass without these protections being fully operational?
My Lords, I thank all noble Baronesses for their thoughtful contributions today, and I again express my gratitude to Awaab’s family for their tireless campaigning in reaching this point, as well as to the organisations and campaigners that have supported them.
I am very pleased to note the general support for the intention of these two sets of regulations and our work to improve the quality of all housing, but I will respond to the important points that have been made by noble Baronesses.
To start with my noble friend Lady Whitaker’s comments, I expect she knows the answer that I am going to give her, but that does not mean that I care any less than I have when I have had meetings with her. I pay tribute to her constant advocacy for the Gypsy and Traveller community. It is very lucky to have such an eloquent champion, and it has been a pleasure to speak to her and discuss the issues with her.
As my noble friend said in her speech, caravans are not buildings according to the definitions set out in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 or the Housing Act 2004, and it is the Government’s position that Awaab’s law will not extend to Gypsies and Travellers living permanently in caravans on sites with amenity blocks that are rented from social landlords. We expect local councils to ensure that amenity blocks provided on local authority-managed sites are safe and healthy. But I want to continue to engage with my noble friend, and with the groups that I know she is very connected with, on the issues affecting those in non-traditional tenures. I hope that she will be happy to do that, because I want to move this on from where we are at the moment.
There was the quite justified challenge on why this has taken so long. The noble Baronesses, Lady Pinnock and Lady Scott, both challenged on that. I have had just about a year on this, but it has been in the pipeline for much longer than that. Of course, we wanted to get these changes absolutely right. We have taken time to closely consult and engage directly with social housing landlords and social tenants. It is critical that the requirements we set in legislation are effective and deliver the best long-term outcomes for social housing tenants.
Motion agreed.
These initial regulations focus on damp and mould, emergency hazards. I will return in 2026 and 2027 with further regulations to extend the law to additional hazards. This allows us to act now, tackling the 7% of socially rented homes in England suffering from damp while testing this first phase with tenants and landlords to make sure we get things right before moving to subsequent phases. This phased approach does not reduce landlords’ existing duties to ensure that their properties are free from dangerous hazards. We will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of Awaab’s law, adding future phases to deliver the best outcomes.
I now move on to the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) (Amendment) (Extension to the Social Rented Sector) Regulations 2025. Private landlords are already required to check the electrics in their properties. We must now ensure that social housing tenants have the same protections.
Electrical faults in homes can be extremely dangerous. This reform will mean that tenants will know their electrics are safe. It will drive up standards and reduce deaths and injuries caused by electrical faults. The new requirements will come into force for new tenancies in November and for existing tenancies next year. All landlords will have to test the electrical installations in their properties at least every five years, to make sure that safety standards are met and repairs carried out. The regulations also go further, requiring landlords to check electrical equipment they provide. Local councils will have the power to require remedial works, if necessary, and can arrange the works themselves if action is not taken by the landlord. Additionally, these regulations raise the maximum financial penalty to £40,000 for landlords, private or social, who do not comply.
I wish to draw the attention of the Committee to the fact that a correction slip has been issued for this statutory instrument. Regulation 11 stated that it inserts a Regulation 12B in the 2020 regulations. It should read “12A”.
To summarise, these new requirements are not an additional burden to the many landlords we know already take a proactive approach to keeping homes safe. Clear standards and requirements of social landlords, and timelines to meet them, eliminate uncertainty for everyone and help make sure that tenants can live in the safe homes they deserve.
Both these sets of regulations have received consistent support from across the House and the sector. I am confident that I bring robust regulations to the House, strengthened by consultation. Subject to the approval of Parliament, Awaab’s law is due to come into effect from October this year and electrical safety requirements for social tenancies from November. I commend these draft regulations to the Committee.
I turn to the second SI, on electrical safety. Of course, it was a faulty fridge that caused the fire in Grenfell Tower. That is not covered by this, but I hope that, as with statutory gas inspections of social housing, this will encourage tenants to understand that electrical safety is as important as gas safety—that it will raise understanding a bit if they get a knock on the door to check whether the electrical equipment put in by their landlord is safe. It is interesting, if I am right, that private landlords have to test other electrical equipment in their homes; PAT testing of major electrical items seems to happen.
With those comments, I think these are two good sets of regulations, but I worry about the timeliness.
On 22 October 2024, I pressed the Minister on that exact point. I asked, quite reasonably, when they would introduce the secondary legislation, and I was told by the Minister at the time that regulations would be laid in autumn 2024. Yet here we are, nearly a year later, and the family of Awaab Ishak are still waiting.
My concerns are further compounded by the phased implementation timetable, which delays until 2027 the application of some of these protections to other serious hazards such as excessive cold, heat, fire and poor hygiene. Why must we wait until 2027? Are we really prepared to accept that vulnerable children will spend the next two winters in dangerous houses, exposed to hazards that the Government already recognise as life-threatening?
Again I ask the Minister: why have the Government chosen to delay full implementation by nearly two years, when the sector has already had time to prepare and families cannot afford to wait? I note that, in last year’s exchange, the Minister said that
“we want to get this done as fast as possible. No one should ever have to lose a child because of the condition of their home”.—[Official Report, 22/10/24; col. 511.]
Those were strong and welcome words. But actions matter more than rhetoric, and I respectfully must say that this timeline does not reflect that urgency.
My last question for the Minister on this instrument is: how will the Government ensure that social landlords will communicate these changes to their tenants? If tenants do not know, tenants cannot do anything about it.
Turning to the second instrument before us, on the extension of electrical safety standards to the social rented sector, this too is welcome. It brings social housing in line with the regulations that have applied in the private rented sector since 2020. It requires all landlords, private and social, to carry out electrical inspections at least every five years, issue safety reports to tenants and complete remedial works within 28 days. The inclusion of electrical equipment through in-service testing, formally known as PAT, is particularly welcome and an important step.
However, I must again return to the timeline. The Charter for Social Housing Residents, published in 2020, promised action. A working group was formed and a consultation was launched in 2022, but only now, three years later, do we see regulations laid. I look to the Minister for justification on this.
In closing, I want to reiterate that this is not a question of politics; it is a matter of justice, of decency and of delivering a promise made not just to the Ishak family but to all tenants who have been suffering in silence. I commend the intent behind these regulations, but I honestly urge the Government to show the urgency that this situation demands. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
Following the coroner’s report, the Government published comprehensive guidance on the health impacts of damp and mould in September 2023, when the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, was the Minister. Awaab’s law will come into force for emergency hazards, damp and mould on 27 October, and we will bring forward further legislation to address other significant hazards in 2026 and 2027. I understand the frustrations about those dates, but it is important that we get these instruments right, so that we can see what the impact is and do not have to come back to the subject.
This Government are committed to driving better outcomes for tenants and ensuring that people can be proud to live in social housing. I want to do as much as we can to reduce the stigma that some social housing tenants feel as well.
Introducing these requirements in a phased way allows us to test with tenants and landlords how phase 1 is working before we move on to phases 2 and 3. This will help us to get this right and deliver legislation that will have a lasting legacy for social tenants. We are clear that Awaab’s law will apply to a wider set of hazards over time, to protect tenants regardless of the cause. There is no excuse for social landlords to ignore hazards while we are in the process of phasing in these requirements. They must continue to meet their duties to keep their homes fit for human habitation and free of category 1 hazards and to remedy disrepair.
Social landlords must also ensure that their homes meet the decent homes standard. It is critical that they take action against any issues in their homes as soon as possible to guarantee the safety and comfort of their residents. Not only do I take this very seriously but so does the social housing regulator, which comes within my area of responsibility in the department. We are not saying, “You don’t need to worry about this until 2026 and 2027”; we want action to be taken immediately, and we will work on the legislation in the meantime.
In response to the comments by the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, about protections before Awaab’s law is fully rolled out, as I said, it is critical that landlords take action on any issues in their homes as soon as possible to guarantee the safety and comfort of their residents. Awaab’s law establishes timeframes for social landlords to act and, once in force, will be enforceable through the courts. But social landlords are already required to keep their social homes fit for human habitation and free of category 1 hazards and to remedy disrepair. Social landlords should be preparing for phase 1 of Awaab’s law—I know that many of them are; I talk to them regularly and they have been working on this for some time—and laying the groundwork for phase 2. They must not compromise on meeting their existing obligations in the meantime. Social landlords must also ensure that their homes meet the decent homes standard.
The noble Baroness also raised the issue of communication with tenants. It is important, once this instrument has passed, that we write to all social landlords, stressing the importance of communicating to their tenants what these changes mean for them. I will take that on board and write to social landlords myself to tell them what the impacts of the instrument are.
The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, rightly raised the issue of the responsibility on social tenants to raise issues with their landlords. One of the things I did when I first took responsibility for the social housing regulator was to talk to it about how it looks at tenant engagement. It is really critical. Last week or the week before, I had a meeting with a tenant’s voice organisation to work on how we might have a national voice for tenants. Every individual landlord must have the appropriate channels through which their tenants can communicate with them. If social landlords fail to fulfil their legal duties, it is important that tenants have a legal route to make things right.
Seeking redress through the courts is not the only way in which residents can challenge their landlords for breaches of Awaab’s law, and I realise that that might be something of an intimidating process for social tenants. Residents can complain to their landlord and then to the Housing Ombudsman if they are unhappy with the outcome. The ombudsman is a free service and has the power to order landlords to undertake repairs and pay compensation to the tenant. Legal aid is available for housing disrepair claims when there is a serious risk of illness or injury, subject to a financial means and merits test. I should also comment—all three of us have been councillors—that for any social tenant who is concerned about their housing conditions, their councillors are also there to support them and are able to direct them to the right source in order to complain about the condition of their housing.
The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, also raised the issue about the quantum of social housing. She will know that the Government have already taken steps to address the right to buy and we are consulting on further steps this year. She will have heard me say previously that I was pleased about the allocation in the spring of £39 billion to improve the quantum of social and affordable housing. That comes on top of the £800 million that we have already allocated for in-year provision of social and affordable housing. We will be publishing the prospectus for bids for social housing in the near future. It is not going to solve the problem overnight but it will at least make a start on delivering some more social housing.
The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, also raised the issue of PAT testing—I understand that engineers are not keen on that term now, but I will use it because I think everyone knows what it means. Sadly, in the case of Grenfell, a fridge caused the issues. Social landlords are much more likely to own large multi-occupied buildings such as tower blocks and must test any electrical appliances that they provide as part of a tenancy. Private landlords are recommended to regularly carry out appliance testing on any electrical appliance they provide and then supply the tenant with a record of any electrical inspections carried out as good practice. Landlords may also consider registering products with a registration scheme but this is a complicated issue because, for most social landlords, properties are rented unfurnished. But there are some circumstances—supported housing, for example, and some types of Housing First-type accommodation for the homeless—where electrical equipment may be provided as part of the tenancy. So it is important that we provide an approach that allows for all those circumstances.
I will look at Hansard and make sure I have not missed any of the questions that I have been asked.
To conclude, Awaab’s law puts in place clear protections for tenants by making sure that dangerous damp, mould and emergency hazards are addressed quickly, and the draft electrical safety regulations will ensure that all landlords have to meet robust standards of electrical safety so that tenants can feel safe in their homes. These regulations are part of the Government’s wider quality reform package, which will ensure that every social housing resident has access to the safe and decent homes that they deserve. I thank all noble Lords who have participated in this work over all the years in which it has been going on.