Guidance

May 2023 – update on government’s work to improve the quality of social housing

The government has a programme of reform to improve the quality of social housing. Every month, progress on our commitments will be shared on these pages, as part of our commitment to respond to the tragic death of 2 year old Awaab Ishak.

Applies to England

The government is reforming the social housing sector so that it delivers better quality homes.

In response to the tragic death of 2-year-old Awaab Ishak, we are bringing in changes to make sure that every tenant can live somewhere decent, safe, and secure.

Every month, our progress will be shared on these pages.

Awaab’s Law

We are working closely with the social housing sector, including residents, to inform our upcoming consultation on ‘Awaab’s Law’.

The consultation will test specific time limits for landlords to investigate and repair serious hazards.

It will make sure these limits are fair for both landlords and tenants.

Making sure tenants’ voices are heard

Resident Panel

Through our Resident Panel, we are placing tenants’ voices at the heart of our work to improve the safety and decency of social housing.

In May, we ran an online session with the Resident Panel to discuss repairs and maintenance.

The panel also discussed the introduction of Awaab’s Law, which will set new requirements for how landlords must respond when homes fall into poor condition or become unsafe. This includes timeframes for repairs.

We will shortly be publishing a summary of the Resident Panel’s work over the last few months. See Social Housing Quality Resident Panel for further information as it is made available.

Four Million Homes

Our Four Million Homes programme provides free information, guidance and training on residents’ rights.

It helps tenants to work with their landlords to make sure homes and neighbourhoods are well maintained, clean, and safe. This government funded programme will run until March 2025.

Eight face-to-face training sessions started in May. They have been taking place across England in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and Nottingham.

Further online training videos will be available on our website from September 2023.

We are also holding a series of free webinars. One was held in May on tackling damp and mould.

Another seminar on anti-social behaviour will be held in June.

For full details of all the training events, webinars and resources, visit Four Million Homes.

Consumer rights and regulation

Consultation on tenant involvement and mutual exchange

Our consultation on improving tenant involvement in the social housing sector closed at the end of March 2023.

We are reviewing the feedback and will publish our own response soon.

Please see Revised directions to Regulator of Social Housing: Tenant Involvement and Mutual Exchange for further information about the proposed changes.

Make Things Right campaign

Our latest Make Things Right campaign to raise awareness of the social housing complaints process finished in March.

The campaign was designed to help tenants know their rights and how to raise complaints on lots of different issues.

We’re continuing to work with national and local partners on sharing our campaign messages.

You can see our Social Housing Complaints campaign website. We know that thousands of tenants have engaged with the campaign and feel more confident about raising complaints as a result.  A full evaluation will be completed by the end of May. This will inform future plans to support tenants in exercising their rights.

Looking ahead

Over the course of this year, we will:

  • Carry on with the review of the Decent Homes Standard. We will consult on improved standards that all homes must meet.

  • Provide free information, training and webinars to social housing residents. Four Million Homes.

  • Carry out a review of existing guidance on the health impacts of damp and mould in homes. We aim to publish new guidance tailored to the housing sector by this summer.

  • Progress the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill through Parliament so that it becomes law.

  • Launch the consultation on improving energy efficiency in social housing within 6 months of the Social Housing (Regulation Bill) becoming law.

  • Launch the consultation on Awaab’s Law, including time limits for landlord action.

  • Continue to gather opinions and input from residents to shape social housing policies as part of our Social Housing Quality Resident Panel.

Further information and resources

More details on the reforms the government is delivering can be found on the Social Housing Quality page.

See more information about how a Bill goes through Parliament.

Published 31 May 2023