Unhealthy dwellings are not just uncomfortable, they can cause death. On 15 November 2022, Coroner Joanne Kearsley held that 2 year old Awaab Ishak died as result of prolonged exposure to mould in his home. This tragic death highlights the need for the application and enforcement of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System to be stepped up. But, here we report on proposals that would weaken the System not strengthen it.
In 2021 the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUCH) commissioned a revision and update of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (the Rating System). The draft of the proposed new “revised” Guidance (which has not yet been published but was previously expected to be in place by the end of 2022) ignores the principle underlying the Rating System, hasn’t really been updated, will cause confusion, and will result in legal conflicts. If adopted, it will result in increased suffering for individuals, days off school and off work, and greater demands on the health and care sectors.
After 10 years’ development, the Rating System was adopted in 2006 and is the statutory method for assessing housing conditions in England and Wales. It focuses on identifying threats to health and/or safety arising from deficiencies in a dwelling – Hazards. The principle underlining the System is that “Any residential premises should provide a safe and healthy environment for any potential occupier or visitor.”
The Rating System has been recognised internationally as a major shift in housing assessment.
The revision commissioned by DLUCH was supposed to achieve several objectives, including:
- Reviewing and updating the current Guidance.
- Providing a simpler means of banding the results of an assessment to make them clearer to understand by landlords and tenants.
- Developing new standards to be incorporated into an assessment.
- Amalgamating and/or removing of some Hazards.
We consider that the draft Guidance is badly written, confused and confusing, does not obviously update the existing Guidance, introduces arbitrary unexplained bandings, brings in so-called minimum standards, and mismatches and combines some Hazards. Not only that, it creates conflict with other legislation, and would fail to promote healthier housing if applied and enforced under Part 1 of the 2004 Housing Act.
There is no obvious updating of neither the statistical data behind the Rating System nor the evidence on housing and health. This leaves the important support for the Guidance nearly twenty years out of date.
The Rating System developed a method for putting a number against each identified Hazard (a Hazard Score). The legislation deems Hazard Scores above 1,000 as Category 1, and those less than 1,000 as Category 2, and places a duty on local housing authorities to take action to deal with Category 1 Hazards, and a power to do so for Category 2 Hazards. Local authorities can also deal with all Hazards, Category 2 as well as Category 1, at a dwelling. The proposed guidance creates three categories (with no explanation) dividing Category 2 Hazards into those with Scores of 101-999 and those of 100 or less. This implies Hazards Scoring 100 or less can be ignored (are “tolerable”), and if action is taken to deal with several such Hazards, or such a Hazard is included with a Category 1 Hazard. This adds a new ground for appeal.
As well as the proposed guidance suggesting that some Hazards are “tolerable”, it also introduces the idea of “normal behaviour” – two totally arbitrary concepts. While the current Guidance makes it clear that the Rating System does not include any potential hazard that is solely attributable to occupier behaviour, the revised version seems to imply some dwelling Hazards should be either “tolerated” or are made worse by the occupier, presumably, through “abnormal behaviour”. No guidance is given on what constitutes a “tolerable” Hazard, nor what is “normal behaviour”. These concepts will make it easier for landlords to argue that any Hazard is the fault of the tenant.
The objective to propose minimum standards has been taken to be a licence to introduce minimum standards for every Hazard. The current Guidance avoids the pass/fail approach of a standard recognising three flaws with any standard. First, the line drawn tends to become the norm – Why should someone exceed the line? Second, it doesn’t give an indication of the severity of failure. Third, minimum standards encourage a check-list/tick-box approach to assessments – if the minimum is reached, then it is OK – it passes.
The minimum standards seem to be linked to a misconception that there are disconnections between the HHSRS and other legislative standards. It is difficult to find a disconnect when the current Guidance manages to avoid them stating that account should be taken of any relevant matter when assessing a Hazard. Meeting a standard does not mean there isn’t a Hazard. For example, the Electrical Safety Regulations set a standard that all electrical installations should be safe, but it does not state how many sockets should be provided to avoid the need for extensions leads (the wires of which could be a trip Hazard). Another example is that relating to smoke and CO alarms. 2015 Regulations (some nine years after the Rating System) requires such alarms to be fitted in rented dwellings and working at the start of the tenancy. The Rating System guidance advises that the lack of such alarms in any dwelling should be taken into account and that they should be working at the time of inspection.
The current Guidance applies to any structure used or intended to be used as a dwelling – the same assessment approach can be used to assess a house, a flat, a caravan, or a park home. This seems to be ignored by the proposed guidance and some so-called minimum standards are only geared toward houses. (While the current Guidance gives clear definitions to avoid confusion, the proposed guidance does not.)
29 potential housing Hazards are given in the current Guidance, grouped to reflect the four basic health requirements in dwellings (as first set out by the American Public Health Association in the 1930s). The proposed guidance regroups the Hazard, without any rationale, ignoring the fact that the current Hazards are given in other legislation (such as the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018).
The proposed guidance proposes combining some Hazards. These include a Hazard labelled “Domestic and Personal Hygiene” which brings together three Hazards in the current Guidance – “Domestic Hygiene, Pests and Refuse”, “Food Safety”, with “Personal Hygiene, Sanitation and Drainage”. Another combines “Fire” with Explosions”, and another “Biocides” with “Carbon Monoxide and Fuel Combustion Products”, “Uncombusted Fuel Gas”, and “Volatile Organic Compounds”. Aside from the incompatibility of these, it is difficult to understand why this has been attempted.
Other matters of concern suggest a lack of appreciation of the significance of a review of the HHSRS and a lack of understanding of the relationship between health and housing.
The concern is that the civil servants who commissioned the work will not appreciate the impact of the ill-thought-through proposals, and that the current political pressure could see this guidance adopted without challenge when tabled in both Houses.
What can be done?
The guidance would have to be issued by the Secretary of State under s9 Housing Act 2004. If you agree with us that this would be against the interests of tenants and put their health at risk, do write to your MP and/or to the Secretary of State as soon as you can to argue for the draft guidance to be rewritten.
This piece was prepared by David Ormandy, Steve Battersby, and Richard Turkington, members of the Academic-Practitioner Partnership for Healthier Housing. www.healthierhousing.co.uk