Conditions across England’s social housing sector have “barely improved” since the Covid-19 pandemic, with 430,000 homes failing to meet basic standards, a scrutiny committee made up of cross-party MPs has warned.
A report from the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee reveals that progress to bring social homes up to the Decent Homes Standard has almost “ground to a halt”.
The report also notes the minimum standard of what is considered a decent home has not changed in 20 years, adding that it is “not acceptable that just under 430,000 social homes still fail to meet even this basic standard”. It calls on government to urgently address social housing quality.
The committee’s report comes just weeks after housing minister Matthew Pennycook announced that the implementation of the Decent Homes Standard would be delayed until 2035 to give landlords adequate time to prepare for the regulations.
The committee has called on the government to establish a modern decent homes programme, including a pooled fund for improvements and a single housing quality framework to consolidate the regulatory requirements on social landlords.
The report also urges government to use the delayed Long-term Housing Strategy to address “the twin objectives of building more social homes while ensuring conditions in existing housing stock are improved”.
Florence Eshalomi, 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 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.”
Other recommendations include publishing a timeline for extending Awaab’s Law, which requires landlords to fix certain property defects within strict timeframes, to all hazards, and launching a review into the Decent Homes Standard at least every 10 years.
The committee said the review would ensure the standard “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”.
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