The Trust responded to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee's inquiry on housing conditions in England which has now been published. Our submission welcomes key policies in the Renters' Rights Bill which can drive up housing standards and improve tenants' health. However, crucial questions remain on implementation and enforcement.
Our response to the call for evidence
Our response centres on the following questions posed in the call for evidence:
- Overarching
- What is the general condition of homes in England and how prevalent are housing hazards such as damp and mould?
- Social housing sector
- How effective will the proposed reforms to the Decent Homes Standards be at improving the conditions of social housing?
- Private rented sector
- Does the Renters’ Rights Bill go far enough to address poor housing conditions in the private rented sector?
- How effective will the introduction of the Decent Homes Standard be at improving the condition of homes in the private rented sector?
- What impact will the introduction of the Decent Homes Standard have on landlords in the private rented sector?
Poor Housing prevalence and its impact on health
The connections between poor housing and poor health are firmly established. Poor housing conditions – including damp and mould, serious hazards, and overcrowding – are contributing directly to rising demands on the NHS and out of work benefits, increasing health inequalities and early deaths, and widening the life expectancy gap between the most and least affluent parts of the country.
Having a safe, secure and affordable home is one of the building blocks of health, but it is not available to everyone. Unequal access to affordable, secure and good quality homes means that, for many people, poor housing is a direct cause of short and long-term health issues. Too many people in England are living in homes that are negatively impacting their health, particularly in the private and social rented sectors.
- As Safe Homes Now campaign (of which People’s Health Trust is a member) has noted, 8 million people across the country are living in homes that are cold, need repair, or have serious hazards. For many people, living in a home that is cold, damp, or dangerous will be life-limiting – and for some, it will even kill them.
- One in five private renters reported that their housing issues or worries made them physically sick. 39% have housing problems or worries that leave them feeling stressed and anxious.
- Over a fifth (21%) of homes in the private rented sector in England fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard.
- 790,000 dependent children in England are living in homes with damp and mould and 45% of these children live in homes in the private rented sector
Does the Renters’ Rights Bill go far enough to address poor housing conditions, and how effective will the introduction of the Decent Homes Standard be for private tenants, alongside reforms to the Standard for social tenants?
We welcome the Renters’ Rights Bill and, if its implementation is properly resourced, believe it has the potential to significantly improve housing conditions and consequently the health of renters.
It can be a significant step forward for people living in rented homes. Currently, unequal access to secure and good quality homes means that, for many people, poor housing conditions are inevitable and a direct cause of short and long-term health issues including respiratory, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal conditions and mental health problems. All of these are disproportionately commonplace in more disadvantaged areas of the country.
The end of Section 21 “no-fault” evictions is a long time coming and will mean tenants can feel more secure in their homes. We particularly welcome the extension of the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector and the creation of the private rental database and ombudsman – these measures have the potential to drive up standards, improve quality and provide renters with better living standards so their health is not threatened by the quality of their homes.
While the Renters’ Rights Act has the potential to drive significant improvements in conditions in both social and private rented properties, a question remains about how the legislation will be implemented and, crucially, how the new Decent Homes Standard and its application to private tenancies will be enforced.
For the last 18 months, People’s Health Trust has led an England-wide campaign to call for better resourcing for the enforcement of housing standards for private and social tenants. This is fundamental to the future success of the Renters’ Rights Act. Without adequate enforcement of housing standards, renters will continue to be discouraged or blocked in their efforts to raise complaints, and the minority of affected tenants who do complain will continue to see their calls literally go unanswered.
In short, the Act alone will not be enough to shift the dial and improve health.
One in five tenants in England live in homes that don’t meet housing safety standards and we believe the Government needs to properly resource the enforcement of housing standards in the rented sector.
“When we did move in, we saw that nothing had been sorted. It was freezing inside. You could see our breath whenever we were breathing. The oven was covered in mould. You know the damp has to be bad for the oven to actually get mould inside it. It was disgusting. We didn’t have anywhere else to go. It wasn’t ok for us to be paying rent and to be living in a property that wasn’t fit for human condition.”
Tatiana, a private sector tenant living in Bradford (Read Tatiana’s story)
Why enforcement matters and our recommendations
Through our Homes for Health programme, we work closely with expert local groups focused on poor housing conditions in areas facing significant levels of disadvantage. They have told us about people living in terrible conditions for weeks and months before private and social landlords fix issues, with remedies often of poor quality which fail to address root causes. We have heard multiple testimonies regarding the inaccessibility of housing enforcement teams who were often too stretched or short-staffed to even return calls, leaving people with uncertainty, feeling powerless to exercise their rights. We have also heard about widespread discrimination against certain groups.
The Renters’ Rights Act can only create the conditions for improvement – its success lies in its enforcement. Decent Homes Standards have been in place for the social housing sector since 2006, but with a lack of serious enforcement, standards remain a significant problem within the social housing sector. There is every reason to believe that this will be replicated in the private rented sector without a stronger focus on enforcement.
As the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has herself noted “the success of the measures in this Bill will come down to enforcement” (Florence Eshalomi MP, Hansard, 9 October 2024).
Making these vital changes requires sufficient resourcing. Alongside the Act, the government must implement a sustainable long-term plan that enables local authorities to fund the necessary level of housing enforcement to make the intent of the Act a reality.
Local councils need the resources to properly enforce improved housing standards, including resources to do proactive inspections of rented properties. Central government must also ensure that landlords are meeting legal obligations through well-resourced enforcement locally, and that there is national coordination to ensure that there is consistency across the country. If local authorities receive ring-fenced funding based on the number of private rented sector dwellings registered in their areas to reflect their relative enforcement burdens they will be better able to maintain standards for private renters.
In the second reading of the Bill in October, the Secretary of State Angela Rayner made a commitment in parliament to extend ring-fenced funding for enforcement, and during the fourth Committee sitting, Mathew Pennycook, Minster for Housing, committed to ensuring that the reforms were fully funded.[1] Despite these and other commitments made during the legislative process, we have yet to see specific details provided about how the enforcement regime required to make the Renters’ Rights Act a success will be implemented.
We continue to urge the Government to ensure that ring-fenced enforcement money becomes a reality and is sufficient to ensure the change of law has the greatest potential to positively impact on the housing and health of tenants.
More widely, given the impact of poor housing on health, it is also critical that these policy solutions are linked with other government initiatives, such as the Get Britain Working White Paper, the 10-year plan for Health in England, and the Government’s health mission, supporting manifesto goals to improve healthy life expectancy and reduce the gap in health between the country’s richest and poorest.
In England, the healthy life expectancy gap is now 20 years. Overall life expectancy at birth has plummeted for babies born in the most deprived areas of England by nearly 17 months for boys, to 72.6 years, and by over 12 months for girls, to 77.7 years - according to new data from the ONS comparing babies born in 2017-19 with 2020-22.
We are also calling for ‘A Health in All Policies approach’, to ensure that there is cross-departmental responsibility for improving the health of the nation.
[1] These commitments include, for example: “We are extending ring-fenced extra resources to councils, because we recognise the need to do that.” (Angela Rayner, 9 October 2024); and “We will ensure that additional burdens on local authorities resulting from our reforms are fully funded.” (Matthew Pennycook, 9 October 2024).