Social Rented Housing Sector

The Government have been clear that they want to deliver transformational and lasting change to the quality and safety of social homes over the next decade. They have made good progress. Following recent announcements, registered providers have more certainty about the standards that they will be expected to meet, and the increased resources available to enable them to do so.

Many Members will remember the tragic case of Awaab Ishak, who died aged two from a severe respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his parent’s home. During his short life, Awaab had recurring cold symptoms and respiratory tract infections, and he had to visit the GP surgery more often than most children. Awaab’s parents reported the mould to their housing association in 2017, before Awaab was born. The coroner’s report states that

“no action was taken to address the mould before Awaab died”

in December 2020, at which point the mould was present in every single room.

During our inquiry, we heard from a mother whose 18-month-old baby started getting chest infections because of the black mould behind her bed. The mould had spread everywhere, but complaining got her nowhere. Awaab’s law is now being rolled out across social housing. It enables tenants to take legal action against their social landlord if they fail to remove hazards in a timely way. On balance, we thought that the Government’s decision to introduce Awaab’s law in phases, starting with the most dangerous flats, was right. However, tenants and housing providers would benefit from a clearer timeline of when the next phases of Awaab’s law will apply. Our report calls for the Government to set that out. For many residents, taking legal action against their landlord is not a decision they want to take. We will be keeping a close eye on the effectiveness of Awaab’s law to ensure that it delivers meaningful protection to tenants, especially the most vulnerable tenants.

By 2030, social landlords will need to make sure that their homes comply with new minimum energy efficiency standards. That is a positive step, though the pace of retrofits will need to accelerate if the sector is to upgrade the remaining homes by 2030. Under the official definition of fuel poverty, a household is not considered to be fuel poor if their home has an energy performance certificate rating at band C or above. However, those living in the homes that comply with the new minimum energy efficiency standard may still struggle to heat their home sufficiently if their energy prices are too high. Our report calls on the Government to amend the definition of fuel poverty in their forthcoming fuel strategy to reflect this. Otherwise, the Committee is concerned that the new energy efficiency standards, while necessary, will provide false assurances that tenants are protected from the multiple risks that arise from living in a cold home.

We welcome the Government’s new decent homes standard. Today’s standard was last updated in 2006, and it is in desperate need of reform. Shockingly, almost 430,000 homes still fail to meet the basic standard, 25 years after it was introduced.

The Government plan to bring the new decent homes standard into force by 2035. A lot of work needs to take place over the next nine years. The Building Research Establishment has estimated that about 45% of social homes will need to be brought up to the new standard. Although the last Labour Government’s decent homes programme was successful, many homes failed to meet the decent homes standard. The Government’s new decent homes standard will improve the quality and safety of homes, but we do not want to find that by 2035 a large proportion of homes have still not been upgraded.

Until 2035 is already too long for many tenants to wait. They must not be told to wait longer. That is why we are recommending that the Government introduce interim targets stipulating the percentage of social homes that should be upgraded to the revised decent homes standard in each year before the standard comes into force in 2035. That will help to reassure and demonstrate to the public that progress is being made. We are also asking the Government to introduce a process to review and if necessary update the decent homes standard periodically, at least every 10 years.

As I say, the Government have made good progress, which is welcome. The sector now has clarity, which it needs to meet the standards. Changes to the rent settlement will help registered providers to improve the quality of their homes. However, we are concerned that those steps alone will not be sufficient to deliver the improvements that the Government want. Our view is that there is a strong case for the Government to establish a new, modern decent homes programme to support social landlords to raise standards.

Even with the investment from the Government and the changes to the rent settlement, we are concerned that the sector will not have sufficient resources to meet the new standards. There is a real risk that the cost of new regulation will lead landlords to sell their homes instead of adapting them. Although we welcome the Government’s plans to make a transformational and lasting change to the quality of social homes, they do not address the long-term, systemic drivers of poor conditions, especially the need to replace ageing stock. We hope that the Government’s long-term housing strategy will be an opportunity to fill the gap, and we urge them to publish the strategy as soon as possible.