The Decent Homes Standard is a technical standard for public housing introduced by the United Kingdom 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 those housed in the public sector - i.e. in council housing or by housing associations .
8-501: In 2000, the government set out a target 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
16-676: The Labour government the policy also made it possible for local councils to privatise their housing stock via stock transfer to registered social landlords, housing associations or private companies. In 2013 in New Zealand the National government announced the Social Housing Reform Program. One element of the reforms are the transference of state housing stock to the third sector. Criticisms include Salvation Army's Alan Johnson calling
24-541: The Private Finance Initiative 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 calculated in 2006 that 36% still needed refurbishment. Other local authorities, such as the London Borough of Lewisham felt unable to meet the 2010 target and applied for extensions of time to 2012 on
32-575: The conditions laid out in the standard. The standard's criteria for housing are as follows: 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
40-489: The grounds that the works required major regeneration. The policy led to the demolition of some tower blocks and prefabricated buildings 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
48-546: 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
56-502: The standard. By 2022, this figure had dropped to one in seven homes in the capital. Stock transfer (housing) Stock transfer is a process whereby the ownership of council housing is transferred to a housing association . The term was first used in the United Kingdom . Here 1.3 million dwellings were transferred between 1998 and 2008. Stock transfer has become an increasingly centralised process. The term social housing
64-472: Was not originally widely used as Council housing outnumbered Housing association housing by about 6:1. There was no special legislation. Chiltern District Council was the first Council to take up stock transfer. 4,650 homes were transferred. An annual programme was introduced. Stock transfer was part of a centrally driven programme. In 2000 when the Decent Homes Programme was brought in by
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