One in seven social homes in London fail to meet Decent Homes Standard
Analysis from the mayor of London’s office has found that 115,000 of London’s social homes fail to meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard.
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The Decent Homes Standard, introduced in 2000, set minimum measures for quality of housing in the UK. However, government funding for bringing social homes up to the standard came to an end in 2016.
The analysis, which uses data from the 2019 English Housing Survey, also found that three in 10 social tenants said they have considered making a complaint in the past year. Of those who complained, 59 per cent were unhappy with the response from their landlord or management organisation.
The mayor’s office has said that the deputy mayor for housing, Tom Copley, will bring together social housing providers from across London, including some of London’s largest housing associations, to discuss how they can improve conditions for social tenants.
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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “While brand new high-quality social rent homes are desperately needed, I’m determined we don’t forget those who are struggling in homes that do not meet basic standards.
“We need a step change in approach as too many homes are still not in a decent condition.
“It is vital that providers of social housing assure tenants that their complaints are being listened to and acted on in a swift and timely manner to provide the comfort and security in their homes that all Londoners deserve.”
The mayor’s office says it is “essential” that social housing providers get the complaints systems right, with complaint-handling the second most common complaint category on which the Housing Ombudsman issues decisions, after property condition.
The Regulator of Social Housing is currently consulting on a new set of tenant satisfaction measures that social housing providers will need to collect.
Pat Turnbull, regional representative for the London Tenants’ Federation, said: “We agree that lengthy and frequently ineffective complaints systems are indeed a key element to address.
“Individual complaints are often symptoms of wider poor-quality management and maintenance practices.
“This includes failures to engage tenants collectively in the development of social landlord policy and practice.”
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