Housing Assocations Guide Part 6 Appendix 4Decent Homes Standard
Contents
1.01 The Decent Homes Standard – has been introduced to promote measurable improvements to housing in Northern Ireland. The standard was introduced in June 2004.
1.02 Background to the Standard – the Decent Homes Standard arose from the UK Government’s Housing Green Paper – ‘Quality and Choice: A Decent Home for All’ and the standard was first published in England in April 2002. The Decent Homes Standard incorporates four main criteria:
- The statutory minimum fitness standard for housing;
- Repair;
- Modern facilities and services; and
- Thermal comfort.
Any property that does not meet all four criteria is deemed to have failed the standard. Further information on meeting the standard is included at 3.00 below.
1.03 The Decent Homes Standard Target – is for all social housing in Northern Ireland to meet this standard by 2010. The 2004 Interim House Condition Survey in Northern Ireland estimated that around 7% of Housing Association dwellings would have failed the Decent Homes standard, but of those that failed, 97% did so on the ‘thermal comfort’ criterion. Older dwellings were estimated to be much more likely to fail, with only 1% of Housing Association dwellings built after 1980 estimated to fail.
2.00 Implementing the decent homes standard2.01 Associations - are required to have a properly resourced planned maintenance and improvement programme to maximise the lettable life of their housing stock. This also includes major repairs and other necessary repair and replacement works. To undertake this task requires Associations to have a detailed ‘profile’ knowledge of its stock and condition.
2.02 Stock Surveys – an Association needs to know the condition of its stock, including the state of repair and energy efficiency. This will involve regular survey and inspection of the stock and existing techniques may need to be modified or enhanced to ‘capture’ the state of the stock in respect of the Decent Homes Standard. Advice on stock surveys is available in the National Housing Federation, publication - Stock Condition Surveys: a guide for registered social landlords (revised edition 16/09/2002) ASBN: 0 86297 477 1 (www.housing.org.uk  ).
2.03 Reporting Progress – Associations will be required to report on the progress towards meeting the 2010 ‘target.’ The Association should monitor the total number of its dwellings that fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard. In the case of individual dwellings, where the standard cannot be met because the tenant does not want the work carried out, these will be measured separately.
2.04Tenant Consultation etc – Associations will need to consult Tenants - in the normal way - on any proposed work to be undertakes on their homes. Where an individual tenant does not want work carried out on their homes to bring it up to the Decent Homes standard, then the dwelling can remain below the standard until it is vacated, at which time the necessary works can be undertaken. The exception to this is where works are required to maintain the structural integrity of the dwelling or to prevent other components within the dwelling from deteriorating.
2.05Grant Position – generally no funding for the ‘Decent Homes Standard’ is available from the NIHE (DPG), unless such work is essential and complementary to other necessary grant earning work – e.g., as part of a re-improvement scheme. For further information on grants available for Miscellaneous Works, see Appendix: 2 to Part 6. Grants for energy conservation works to existing dwellings may be available to Associations from a number of sources. In order to access these grants, the Association may have to make a case for funding and pay a proportion of the cost of any measures undertaken.
3.00 The decent homes standard applicable to Northern Ireland3.01 The Standard Applicable to Northern Ireland – in England & Wales on April 2006 the Housing Health & Safety Rating System (HHSRS) replaced the Housing Fitness Standard. Under HHSRS criteria, to be defined as decent a home should be free of Category 1 hazards. Subsequently current NI decent homes standard is not comparable with England & Wales due to the different fitness standard applied.
The present fitness standard will continue to be used as the benchmark for housing in Northern Ireland however this may be reviewed under future legislation.
3.02In order to meet the Decent Homes Standard - applicable to Northern Ireland, a dwelling must:
(a) Meet the current statutory minimum fitness standard for housing - the fitness standard is set out in Schedule 5 of the Housing (NI) Order 1992. Under the fitness standard, a dwelling is fit for human habitation unless, in the opinion of the relevant Authority, it fails to meet one or more of the minimum requirements.
(Further information on this criterion is included at Annex A).
(b) Be in a reasonable state of repair – dwellings that fail to meet this criterion are those where:
- One or more of the key components are old and because of their condition, need replacing or major repair; or
- 2 or more other building components are old and because of their condition, need replacing or major repair.
A building component can only fail to satisfy this criterion by being old and requiring replacing or repair – a component cannot fail this criterion based on age alone.
(Further information on this criterion is included at Annex B).
(c) Have reasonably modern facilities and services - dwellings that fail to meet this criterion are those that lack 3 or more of the following:
- A reasonably modern kitchen (20 years old or less);
- A kitchen with adequate space and layout;
- A reasonably modern bathroom (30 years old or less);
- An appropriately located bathroom and WC;
- Adequate insulation against external noise (where external noise is a problem);
- Adequate size and layout of common areas for blocks of flats.
A dwelling lacking up to 2 of the above is still classed as decent therefore it is not necessary to modernise kitchens and bathrooms if a home passes the remaining criteria.
(d) Provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort - this requires effective insulation and heating.
3.03General principles of application – in applying the Decent Home Standard, Associations should note that:
- The Decent Homes Standard must be sustainable in the long term, and applied to stock that will have a foreseeable future demand;
- It is a minimum standard that all social housing stock must meet by 2010 and which can be measured consistently across all the social housing stock.
- It is a standard that triggers action, not one to which work is carried out;
Associations are not expected to carry out work that only contributes to the standard, but may need to consider, as an example:
- Building components that may fail early and need urgent replacement or repair;
- Environmental and ‘designing out crime’ works - which are not included in the standard – but which may have a high priority in some locations.
3.04Types of Dwellings to which the standard applies – includes all types of self-contained, dwellings, including sheltered housing and non-self contained (i.e. shared) or supported housing. However, the standard does not specifically apply to short-stay hostels etc.
4.00 Action by the Association
4.01The Association – should undertake any surveys necessary to identify those dwellings that fail the standard and plan how the 2010 ‘target’ can be achieved. Any works required may need to be planned in conjunction with other works and improvements scheduled for the dwellings.
4.02Any queries on the content of this Appendix should be addressed to:
Northern Ireland Housing Executive
Development Project Group
4th Floor, The Housing Centre
2 Adelaide Street
Belfast BT2 8PB
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