When it comes to improving people’s lives through better quality housing, the housing sector working in partnership with government has a record to be proud of. Since introducing the first Decent Homes Standard in 2000, more than three million homes have been improved to meet standards in decency, including more than one million social homes.
Between 2000 and 2023, the overall number of homes failing to meet these standards dropped by almost 50%.
In the social housing sector, the story is even better, with nearly three-quarters of non-decent homes having been brought up to standard – meaning that the proportion of poor housing has fallen from nearly four in ten homes, to one in ten. But there’s more to do.
At the Hyde Group, 99% of the homes we provide meet the current decent homes standard.
These improvements have ensured millions of people now live in safer, warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes.
However, expectations of what ‘decent’ means have, rightly, moved on since the Decent Homes Standard was last revised 19 years ago. We know that it no longer reflects the needs and lifestyles of our customers.
Labour’s five-point plan for a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing, sets out an ambitious new vision for the sector.
It rightly prioritises both the delivery of new homes and improving existing ones.
The upcoming regulatory changes affecting social housing are significant. Awaab’s Law, coming into force this October, will require landlords to investigate and fix emergency hazards within 24 hours, including electrical hazards, loss of water supply, and severe damp and mould that is having a material impact on a resident’s health.
The updated Decent Homes Standard, which recently concluded consultation, proposes new expectations around energy efficiency, safety and overall decency, like the removal of age as a criterion for disrepair, requiring window restrictors and carpets and including kitchens and bathrooms as key components for achieving decency.
Some of these reforms are vital and some are not essential, such as carpets in every room. This needs sensible debate and amendment.
However, these reforms come at a significant cost, and we must be realistic about the pace at which we can deliver them without additional funding.
For the Hyde Group, we’ve estimated that complying with Awaab’s Law will cost an additional £2 million annually.
And meeting the new Decent Homes Standard will require more than £60 million.
For social housing providers these costs come on top of the record £8.8 billion spent on repairs and maintenance in 2023-24, driven by building safety costs, rising insurance premiums, and inflationary pressures.
At the same time, the resources we have to deliver for customers has fallen behind. Rents in the social housing sector are 15% lower in real terms than in 2015.
To achieve the change needed, housing associations need the government to pull all the financial levers at their disposal, chief among them is a rent settlement that includes a more generous rate of rent convergence.
That’s why step three of Labour’s plan, regulation, cannot be achieved without step two – rebuilding the sector’s capacity to borrow and invest. Rent convergence is central to this.
The Ggovernment has proposed to reintroduce rent convergence, which is extremely welcome. We think this modest increase, around £156 annually per affected household, strikes a balance between affordability for residents and the sector’s urgent need for investment.
Social housing remains significantly more affordable than the private sector. Our average social rent is £139 per week, and across the country, social rents are about 64% lower than market rents. But successive rent caps and cuts have left us far behind inflation.
At Hyde, 45% of our homes are currently below the rent level they should be at as a result of government intervention.
Getting this right is about ensuring every customer lives in a home that is safe, warm, and decent. It’s about giving housing associations the financial stability to deliver on Labour’s regulatory ambitions without sacrificing future supply or our wraparound services that support thriving communities.
In our panel session at Conference on Monday we’ll discuss how we can make Labour’s vision for a new Decent Homes Standard a reality.
At Hyde we’re proud of the work we’ve done to create more decent homes over the past two decades.
We stand ready to work with government again to make the new regulatory regime a success.
But to do this, we need rent convergence to help cover our operating costs.
If we want to drive up the quality of our social homes, we need government to make social housing financially sustainable over the long term.
You can hear more from Neal Ackral at Labour Housing Group’s fringe at Labour Party Conference in partnership with Hyde Housing: How can Labour improve the condition of existing social homes?(Monday 29th: 11:00 – 12:00, Arena Room – Kielder, Lower Level ACC Arena).