NHF partners with RICS to develop standardised social housing stock condition survey

The standard will incorporate current regulatory requirements and be adapted where necessary to align with any future changes, for example to the new Decent Homes Standard, the NHF said.

It is being developed and created in partnership with housing associations and other stakeholders including the National Federation of ALMOs and the Association of Retained Council Housing and their members, including the views of residents.

The standardised stock condition survey follows recommendations from the Better Social Housing Review, published in December 2022.

Among these, the review, led by Helen Baker, said that housing associations should work together to undertake a comprehensive national audit of social housing. The review said this is because, as it currently stands, the sector has “no clear picture of the state of its stock and its wider performance”.

A few months later, the NHF set out an action plan to carry out the recommendations, including developing a shared approach to understanding the condition of landlords’ homes and who lives in them.

In addition, the Regulator of Social Housing’s new consumer standards include the Safety and Quality Standard, which requires landlords to provide safe and good-quality homes informed by an “accurate, up-to-date and evidenced understanding” of the condition of their homes.

Justin Young, chief executive of RICS, said: “The UK needs a data-driven, fact-focused social housing sector, and a comprehensive stock condition survey, designed with RICS members’ expertise, will clear up uncertainty about the quality of the UK’s social housing stock.

“This new partnership with the NHF is timely, given the government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years.”

The sector has focused on stock quality since a coroner’s report in November 2022 concluded that two-year-old Awaab Ishak died in December 2020 as a result of a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s Rochdale Boroughwide Housing home.

In response, the previous government announced Awaab’s Law as an amendment to the Social Housing (Regulation) Act to force social landlords to investigate and fix damp and mould in their properties within strict new time limits.

The consultation on this, launched in January last year, proposed that social landlords must investigate hazards within 14 days, start fixing within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours.

The new government has revealed that Awaab’s Law will be introduced “this autumn” for the social housing sector. It also plans to extend this to the private rented sector through its Renters’ Rights Bill.