MPs urge government to act on ‘unacceptable’ number of non-decent social homes

The House of Commons’ housing committee has called for the government to implement a programme to support social landlords in upgrading social homes.

In a report published today (Monday), the housing, communities and local government (HCLG) committee noted that despite the fact the minimum standard for decent homes had not changed in two decades, many social homes still failed to meet them.

“It is not acceptable that just under 430,000 social homes still fail to meet even this basic standard,” it said.

The committee welcomed the proposed changes to the Decent Homes Standard, noting that the “current standard has been out-of-date for some time and is in urgent need of reform, given that it was last updated in 2006”.

It recommended the government put in place interim targets in homes upgrading to the revised Decent Homes Standard and called for reviews every 10 years to update the standard 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”. 

The committee urged the government to use the delayed long-term housing strategy to deliver an approach to deliver the twin objectives of building more social homes while ensuring conditions in existing housing stock are improved.

It said the government should set up a new Decent Homes Programme to support social landlords to raise the standards of social homes.

It suggested that this programme could include a pooled fund for improvements to social homes and a single housing quality framework to consolidate the regulatory requirements on social landlords.

Committee chair Florence Eshalomi 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 committee also called on the government to set and publish a timeline for extending Awaab’s Law to all remaining hazards, as its initial phases have focused on tackling the most dangerous hazards.