5 Conclusion
229. By any standards, the Decent Homes programme
can be counted as a very significant public policy success. A
substantial backlog of repairs and maintenance in social housing
existed thirteen years ago and a significant percentage of council
rented properties were of unacceptably poor quality: whilst it
has yet to be completely eliminated, huge progress has been made,
improving the lives of millions of tenants. The programme has
also had spin-off benefits for energy efficiency; long-term refurbishment
planning and asset management; skills training and job creation;
community engagement; and civic and personal pride.
230. When our predecessor ODPM Committee looked
at Decent Homes in 2004, the Government was reluctant to consider
the future of the policy. Even now we found a similar reluctance
on the part of the current Housing Minister when he came to give
evidence to this inquiry: Mr Healey was considerably more forthcoming
on the merits of the current programme than when questioned on
the main subject of our inquiry, what should come next. Now is
the time when serious consideration needs to be given to the future
of standards in social housing: what standards are appropriate
and achievable; and how they can be achieved and maintained in
the current and likely future financial and policy context.
231. The main means by which Government can ensure
that standards of decency in social housing are maintained in
future will be the regulatory framework designed and implemented
by the Tenant Services Authority. That framework sets some important
national standards but is not over-prescriptive, allowing scope
for locally-agreed standards to suit the circumstances of particular
localities. This will build on the work already done by a number
of social landlords who have, in conjunction with their tenants,
already improved their properties to a standard higher than Decent
Homes. In particular, the TSA framework provides for extending
decency standards not only to individual homes but to the estates
and environments on which they are situated, which is an important
step forward for improving the quality of life of social housing
tenants.
232. We have recommended another important extension
to the existing decent homes criteria: the addition of a specific
minimum standard for energy efficiency. We consider that this
is important for tenants, who may suffer excesses of cold or fuel
poverty even in homes currently considered decent. An equally
important driver for this extension, however, is the imperative
of meeting climate change targets. Work to improve energy efficiency
in the existing housing stock is crucial if significant inroads
are to be made into reducing domestic carbon emissions, and the
decent homes standard is an obvious means of ensuring that happens,
at least in the social housing sector.
233. Setting standards is of course no good,
however, unless the means are available to achieve them. Reform
of the Housing Revenue Account, combined with an uplift to the
Major Repairs Allowance, offers the promise both of the provision
of resources sufficient to ensure that decency is maintained in
local authority housing and of improved asset management on the
part of council landlords. This should go a long way towards ensuring
that a backlog of non-decent housing is not allowed to build up
again in the future.
234. The decent homes programme in the private
sector, meanwhile, has been much less effective. Resources have
been cut and the target downgraded, meaning that many private
homes remain non-decent and progress has stalled. The Government
needs to lead a concerted effort, backed by an ambitious long-term
target, if its aim of "a decent home for all" is to
be achieved in the private sector.
235. We congratulate the Government on its achievements
so far in the decent homes programme. Notwithstanding the difficulties
of the current public sector spending climate and the importance
of continuing to make progress towards eliminating the remaining
backlog, however, now is the time to build on those achievements,
not to sit back on them. The Government needs to look beyond the
existing decent homes programme and plan for a future in which
social tenants, private tenants and owner-occupiers all have the
opportunity of living in a warm, well-maintained and reasonably
well-equipped home.
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