Housing Committee urges acceleration of Long-term Housing Strategy to improve social housing conditions

The government has responded to the HCLG Committee’s report, individually addressing each of the nine recommendations made by the Committee and agreeing with the Committee’s pleas to be ambitious when it comes to improving social housing in England.

However, the Government also notes its confidence that current commitments will put social and affordable housing back on track after years of neglect and asks anyone with a role in social and affordable housing to step up and prove they can work to deliver at scale and at pace.

The Government’s full response to the nine recommendations from the report can be found here.

Florence Eshalomi MP, Chair of the HCLG Committee said: “It is unacceptable that almost 430,000 social homes still fail to meet even basic housing standards, with many families left in poor quality, potentially unsafe homes for far too long.

“It’s crucial that government measures, including Awaab’s Law and the New Decent Homes Standard, bring a meaningful improvement to social housing conditions. The government’s response to our social housing report highlights a series of areas where clearer timelines and further detail is needed on the action to improve social housing conditions.  

“The Government needs to push ahead with their Long-term Housing Strategy as soon as possible and set out a credible plan both for the regeneration of existing housing stock and the building of the new social homes the country needs”.