Decent Homes Programmes

What is the brief definition of a Decent Home?

"A Decent Home is one that is wind and weather tight, warm and has modern facilities"

The Decent Homes Standard (DHS)

Is a series of guidelines that aims to make sure that every home is brought up to a minimum standard

The Department for Communities and Local Government (the 'CLG') expects all social housing to be 'decent' by the end of March 2014.

The DHS exists so that social landlords can identify the areas of their housing stock that are currently poor, and therefore identify the areas that need major improvement works.

To achieve the 'Decent Home' standard a property must match the following criteria:

• It meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing
• It is in a reasonable state of repair
• It has reasonably modern facilities and services
• It provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort 

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

The definition of what is a "Decent Home" was updated to reflect the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), which replaced the Housing Fitness Standard (HFS) in April 2006.

The DH standard is fairly complex but to put briefly, it is based around the age and condition of various property "components" throughout the property. Components are assessed by means of a "Stock Condition Survey"

Homes in Havering are conducting on-going Stock Condition Surveys to properties. These surveys form part of our Asset Management Strategy approach for stock investment and maintenance. Surveys help us establish and revise (where necessary) our future DH programmes.

As of September 2009, we have performed stock condition surveys on 4,481 properties and are currently performing surveys on a further 2,038 properties. All communal blocks have now been surveyed.

Updated on 10/09/09