Housing associations are on course to meet the decent homes standard, according to new research from the Housing Corporation.

A study of 181 registered social landlords, published on Tuesday, found that the government’s refusal to relax the rent restructuring regime would not prevent them hitting the target. All medium and large RSLs and 96% of smaller ones said they expected to meet the deadline.

However, two small RSLs said they could be financially ruined by the cost of meeting the 2010 target.

The figures showed 21% of the 350,788 association properties in the survey fail the standard, mostly because they are in disrepair and are not easy enough to heat.

Post-transfer RSLs have, on average, the worst stock, with 29% of it non-decent. Smaller RSLs were the best performers in the survey, with just 8% of homes below par compared to 21% at larger associations.

RSLs are spending an average of £1980 to bring each property up to the standard.

Malcolm Levi, chief executive of Home Group, said the government should allow associations to raise rents by 1% above the rate of inflation to help meet the costs of decent homes improvements.

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

A study by the National Housing Federation, also published on Tuesday, highlighted continued fears that the government would change the standard before 2010.