Consultation on the reform of Decent Homes Standard for all rented properties

Background

The Decent Homes Standard (DHS) was first implemented in 2001 as part of the Government's Housing Green Paper, Quality and Choice: A Decent Home for All to address sub-standard accommodation in the social housing sector. It was last updated in 2006 in which it stated that a property must meet the following requirements in order to be considered 'decent' under the DHS:

• be free from health and safety hazards at the most dangerous “category 1” level (as assessed using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)).
• be in a reasonable state of repair.
• have reasonably modern facilities and services.
• provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.

It is 25 years since the DHS was first implemented and it is widely considered to be out of date and not meeting the needs of tenants. Recent statistics on DHS illustrate the challenge facing the sector: 

• around 1.5 million rented homes fail to meet the DHS.
• the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has reported that, as of 2025, 10% of homes in the social rented sector, and 21% of homes in the private rented sector are non-decent. 
• the Building Research Establishment (BRE) found that in 2019 almost 1 in every 8 private rented homes, around 619,000 homes, contained a health and safety hazard at the most serious “category 1” level. 
• it has been estimated that the illness or injury posed by these hazards costs the NHS around £290 million per year. In the social rented sector, the equivalent figures are 217,000 (5%) of homes with a serious “category 1” hazard, costing the NHS £65 million per year. 

In short, the current DHS itself doesn't set a high enough bar to ensure properties are actually 'decent' for habitation and there are many properties that are not even meeting these standards. 

Given this context, for several years the Government has been reviewing the DHS as to how it may be updated to ensure it is sufficiently stringent to achieve good quality and safe accommodation for tenants. On 2 July 2025 the Government opened the Consultation on a reformed Decent Homes Standard for social and privately rented homes (Consultation) to address these issues and to aim to improve the quality, safety and security of rented properties. The Consultation will run throughout the summer, closing on Wednesday 10 September 2025. We consider its key features and potential impact in this article.

How is the Decent Homes Standard being reformed? 

The biggest change is that for the first time the DHS will apply to the private rented sector. It is proposed that this will be implemented in either 2035 or 2037 in order to give sufficient time to private sector landlords to ensure their housing meets the DHS. 

The Government wants to change the approach to assessing whether a home meets the DHS so that the focus is on the condition of the home rather than arbitrary age profiles for fixtures and fittings. Furthermore, in light of the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, there is a new criteria relating to the remediation of damp and mould. The Consultation outlines the following amendments to the criterion and scope of the DHS:

 The Consultation also requests views on:

• introducing best practice guidance to work with the DHS and inform landlords on how they may go further to exceed the minimum standards of the DHS.
• a proposal that the DHS becomes an enforceable requirement in privately rented homes from 2035 or 2037, and a regulatory requirement in social housing from 2035 or 2037.
• proposals for how regulatory and enforcing bodies should engage with landlords who are unable to meet the DHS for reasons relating to the property, their tenants, or the landlords.

Impact

Social housing landlords will be familiar with the process of complying with the DHS but will nonetheless be concerned by the potential impact of these standards being made more stringent, bearing in mind the age of the homes that they currently manage and the likely costs to meet the MEES. However, the application of these standards to the private rented sector is a seismic change. There are generous timeframes for implementing the updated DHS of 10 to 12 years, but both the sectors will have concerns as to how any improvement works are to be funded and what happens if they fail to comply. We consider these issues further. 

How will Landlords pay for any required upgrade work? 

• Private sector housing: Private sector landlords will likely need access to Government incentive schemes (perhaps similar to the Green Deal) to assist with funding any required upgrade works. If additional incentive funding isn't provided then, given the current state of the private rental market, additional costs of comply with the DHS being passed on to tenants would likely further exasperate the cost-of-living crisis.
• Social housing: Grant funding may also be made available for social housing landlords but it is likely that the anticipated long term rent settlement will be expected to play its part in paying for required improvement works. Whether that will be sufficient is not only important for the DHS but also wider capital works, reactive maintenance and development work undertaken by social housing landlords and is a continuing challenge for the sector.

What enforcement powers will there be against Landlords if they fail to comply with the DHS? 

• Private sector housing: The Consultation has requested views on making the DHS an enforceable requirement in the privately rented sector by 2035 or 2037. Private landlords are already required to ensure that their homes are fit for human habitation including being free from category 1 hazards as defined by the HHSRS. The Renters' Rights Bill amending the Housing Act 2004 will introduce a power to allow local authorities to apply their existing enforcement powers for hazards to the DHS. Therefore, if a council identifies failures to comply with DHS requirements, it will be able to take enforcement action including requiring landlords to remedy failures. Non-compliance with council enforcement notices or orders will be a criminal offence, meaning landlords who fail to comply can be prosecuted or fined. In addition to this, the Government is intending to use secondary legislation to increase the maximum fine level for non-compliance from £30,000 to £40,000 and, for serious failures (such as category 1 hazards), local councils will also have new power to issue immediate civil penalties of up to £7,000 if the landlord failed to take reasonably practicable steps to address the issue. Enforcement action will also be able to be made against a superior landlord.
• Social housing: Currently social housing landlords must publish annually the proportion of their homes that do not meet the DHS as one of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures and report their own compliance to the Regulator of Social Housing. There isn't any enforcement rights or regulatory consequences for failing to meet the DHS and so the Consultation has requested views on making the DHS a regulatory requirement in social housing from 2035 or 2037. This may mean that a failure to comply with DHS could result in a regulatory downgrade for a social landlord which would entail reputational damage, greater regulatory scrutiny and affect borrowing costs and access to funding.

The Government therefore has a very challenging tightrope to tread – if they set the DHS too high then they will be too onerous for landlords to comply with but if they lack ambition then material upgrades to housing won't be made and tenants will not benefit from better quality and safer homes. It will be very difficult to land on a standard which balances the interests of all stakeholders.

What next?

Interested parties in the social and private housing sectors are encouraged to submit feedback by 10 September 2025 to https://consult.communities.gov.uk/decent-homes-team/a-reformed-decent-homes-standard in order to help shape the final standards.