The government's Decent Homes Standard

Everything you need to know about the government’s Decent Homes Standard.

The Decent Homes Standard is a quality standard set by the government that social-rented homes must meet.

We are currently investing £3 billion in a 15-year-long programme of major works to make sure that your homes and buildings meet the Decent Homes Standard.

In total, we'll install around 48,000 new kitchens and 42,000 new bathrooms through the programme, alongside a range of other improvements to things like windows and roofs.

The government is currently reviewing the Decent Homes Standard, but the current detailed guidelines (PDF) are set out on their website.

In summary the Decent Homes Standard states:

Your home must meet the current statutory minimum standard for housing

This means that your home should not have any hazards that are a serious and immediate risk to a person's health and safety (these are referred to by law as ‘category 1 hazards’), and if it does, we should be taking action to fix these.

Your home must be in a reasonable state of repair

The guidelines say that your home is not in a reasonable state of repair in the following two scenarios:

• when one or more ‘key building components’ (parts of a building that if they are not working could cause severe damage to the rest of the building, such as roofs, outside walls and heating systems) are old and because of their condition need replacing or major repair.
• when two or more ‘other building components’ (parts of a building that don’t impact the rest of the building to the same extent, such as individual kitchens and bathrooms) are old and because of their condition need replacing or major repair.

Your home must have reasonably modern facilities and services

The guidelines say that your home does not meet this standard if it does not have three or more of the following:

• a kitchen that is 20 years old or less
• a kitchen with adequate space and layout
• a bathroom that is 30 years old or less
• an appropriately located bathroom and toilet (for example, these must both be indoors)
• adequate insulation from outside noise
• adequate size and layout of shared entrance areas for blocks of flats

Your home must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort

This means that your home should have efficient heating and effective insulation that protects you from excess cold.

Efficient heating can include any gas, oil, LPG or solid fuel programmable central heating, electric storage heaters, warm air systems, or underfloor heating systems.