Healthy Homes Are More Essential Than Ever

Over the past two years, the UK has seen swathes of legislation relating to the quality and health of homes and in 2026, there’s nowhere to hide. Compliance is mandatory, and so it should be.

In reality it shouldn’t have taken Awaab’s Law, the updated Building Safety Act and the Decent Homes Standard to drive the delivery of homes that are safe. But this is where we are today, and further updates are incoming.

Despite some of these policies being announced two years ago, there are still 4 million homes (equal to around 15% of all dwellings) that fail to meet the current Decent Homes Standard – let alone the updated version. This includes 1m private rented properties and 428,000 social rented homes according to research by the English Housing Survey. Inventory Base analysed this data and suggests that this figure could actually rise to 726,000 homes by 2035 if improvement rates do not pick up which is a terrifying thought.

This year alone, 93,000 private landlords left the sector having found the burden of cost and legislation no longer outweighs the income earned from renting assets. This means potentially hundreds of thousands of properties no longer available for rent, placing even more pressure on the supply of rental property, and less focus on the condition of them.

On the public sector side, we are seeing Registered Providers flocking to complete 100% stock condition surveys to understand the state of the assets they have in their ownership. From the 100,000+ surveys Rapleys alone has completed, 5-10% fall below the Standard’s condition with 3-5% requiring significant upgrades. That’s 3,000 minimum just from our sample that need immediate work at not insignificant costs.

Legislation is one thing. But what we also need is partnership: a coming together of experts (both public and private sector side) who can share best practice, tools and guidance on solving this problem. Some will focus on the pre-emptive: the delivery of healthy homes through new development or refurbishment and this is key as a longer-term solution. There are already initiatives being put in place for this such as the

International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)’s roadmap.

But the acute problem is right here and now and current initiatives need more airtime and a wider reach. One such example is CHIC’s Healthy Homes framework, a panel we are proud to be part of. This not only advises on high quality decarbonisation and building safety services and solutions for the future housing requirements in the UK, it also actively looks at crucial works and services for the here and now.

Through CHIC’s network of members, which includes more than 200 housing associations and local authority affordable housing landlords, solutions are shared to achieve net zero targets, enabling all members to engage all the support needed to survey, plan and deliver retrofit and building works and services.

This is just one step forward out of many possibilities and opportunities. Other frameworks also seek to support the drive towards net zero and the upgrade of homes to a healthy standard. Consultancies are employing specialist Building and Health and Safety experts to oversee not only the adoption of legislation but to advise clients on their strategies and practices for the short-term as well as future proofing.

Given the exodus of private landlords and cash strapped social housing providers and operators, an emergency fund ringfenced for sole use in upgrading unhealthy homes – and not only wrapped around decarbonisation – would provide a healthy carrot alongside the legislation and fines. That way more landlords can utilise the guidance from initiatives such as CHIC, quickly, and we can start to clear the backlog which will help with general homes delivery to boot.