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The Decent Homes Standard is a
technical standard A technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, ...
for
public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, de ...
introduced by the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and No ...
government. It underpinned the Decent Homes Programme brought in by the Blair ministry ( Labour party) which aimed to provide a minimum standard of housing conditions for all those who are housed in the
public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, in ...
- i.e.
council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...
and
housing association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help fin ...
s. The government set out a target in 2000 that it would "ensure that all social housing meets set standards of decency by 2010, by reducing the number of households living in social housing that does not meet these standards by a third between 2001 and 2004, with most of the improvement taking place in the most deprived local authority areas." Local authorities were required to set out a timetable under which they will assess, modify and, where necessary, replace their housing stock according to the conditions laid out in the standard. The criteria for the standard are as follows: # it must meet the current statutory minimum standard for housing # it must be in a reasonable state of repair # it must have reasonably modern facilities and services # it must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort." The standard was updated in 2006 to take account of the Housing Act 2004, included the implementation of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). The policy also makes it possible for local councils to privatise their housing stock via stock transfer to registered social landlords, housing associations or private companies, and to seek funding under the
Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 19 ...
in order to fund future developments. Some local authorities calculated that large proportions of their housing stock were in need of upgrade. For example,
Norwich City Council Norwich City Council is the city council for the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. It consists of 39 councillors, elected to represent 13 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under Labour control and led by Alan Waters. It fo ...
calculated in 2006 that 36% still needed refurbishment. Other local authorities, such as the
London Borough of Lewisham Lewisham () is a London borough in south-east London; it forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The Prime Meridian passes t ...
felt unable to meet the 2010 target and applied for extensions of time to 2012 on the grounds that the works required major regeneration. The policy led to the demolition of some
tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...
s and
prefabricated building A prefabricated building, informally a prefab, is a building that is manufactured and constructed using prefabrication. It consists of factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building. Hist ...
s which were deemed beyond repair or too expensive to refurbish. Many local authorities set up ALMOs to manage their homes in order to access extra funding. However, in 2009 the Government diverted some of this funding to new building, to the dismay of the tenants who had got involved with the new management organisations. At the start of 2010, the CLG announced that 95% of Council homes would meet the standard by the end of the year. However, provisional figures published in August that year indicated that 10.2% had failed the standard at the original target date of April 2010, and figures for London published in September showed that a quarter of Council homes still fell below the standard.One in four council homes fails 'Decent Homes Standard'
BBC News, 16 September 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2010
By 2022, this figure had dropped to one in seven homes in the capital.


References

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External links


What is a Decent Home?
on Government (CLG) website, at The National Archive
Seminar on leasehold recoveries for Decent Homes works
Social Housing Law Association
Decent Homes Programme
report from the National Audit Office, 2010
Report: Strengthen Decent Homes standard and apply it to all
UK Parliament, 23 March 2010 Housing in the United Kingdom