The government is to pay up to £5m to train environmental health officers as a result of the new system for assessing housing conditions.
The Housing Bill – currently being debated in the House of Commons – scraps the current fitness standard and replaces it with the more comprehensive housing health and safety rating system.

The system is designed to give a much more accurate picture of housing conditions, in terms of health dangers to inhabitants.

However, the system has been criticised for being too complex and potentially hard to enforce.

In November, housing minister Keith Hill committed the government to meeting the start-up costs related to bringing council officers up to speed with the system.

An ODPM spokesman this week confirmed it had set aside £4.5m-5m for the scheme, which it hopes to have up and running by 2005.

Source

Housing Today