Beyond Decent Homes - Communities and Local Government Committee Contents


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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